Children of War
by Slowy Slowpoke
Summary: This all started out as a journey of self-discovery for me. How did I end up all the way in the battlefield...? I don't know how I'm going to make out of this alive and unharmed but I don't want to give up this chance that I've been luckily granted. I only have once chance to be happy and if it means going to war to make it happen, then bring it on.
1. Children of Beginnings

This story is really just an exercise. I don't write much but I would always have situations in my head that I could never write it down the way I envisioned it in my head. This it why I am writing this story. To explore and exercise scenarios, writing technique, and what I'm most excited to try to write the most, emotions. So, there's gonna be some OOC since this story is gonna explore emotions that do not appear on the show and it's definitely gonna be emotionally dramatic from time to time. This is mainly just for fun and as a hobby so don't expect a super good novel or anything like that.

If you're not comfortable reading the story after reading this note, I suggest finding another story that suits your style before you accidentally suffer from second-hand embarrassment because of me, haha. If you continue to read the story even after reading this whole thing, thank you and I apologize for the future second-hand embarrassment from my noobish writing style!

* * *

A rock fly pass right in front of my face.

I blink.

I am surprised although I really shouldn't be.

I turn to my right, the direction where the rock came from, to find out who threw it.

I only saw a shadow fleeing behind the house he or she was hiding behind.

I sigh and roll my eyes in annoyance before continuing my way to school. There really was no point in chasing that shadow because it was quite obvious that it was just another kid.

* * *

The day is normal just like any other day.

Well, with some exceptions of a few days. Maybe two? I think.

Sitting on my wooden chair, elbows on my wooden desk and my face buried in the palm of my hands, I sigh through my nose as I try to retain consciousness from today's dreary lesson. Actually, scratch that. Everyday at school, everything is dreary. For me, that is. Others have friends to brighten their days. I, on the other hand, do not have friends.

It's not because I'm weird or anything.

Okay, it's probably that but I know for sure that was not it.

It's because I do not reach out to them or try to make friends with them.

I just don't feel...'here'. Like I can feel my body is here but my heart and mind is somewhere else. Or, maybe my heart and mind is somewhere else because I _want _it to be somewhere else.

I loop these thoughts in my head repeatedly before I could feel it darkening my mood more than it already was.

Another deep sigh from my mouth. It is strained and I could feel my chest shrinking as I breath out. And it didn't stop. My chest continue to tighten, pushing out all the air from my lungs. I try to suck the air back in but my throat close up against my will.

"Xiong lao shi! There's something wrong with Wan!" A student bring the attention of not only the teacher, but also the entire class to me. They watch me as I grip the edge of my table painfully with my left hand. My right hand, hovering in front of my throat. I want to rip my throat open so much just so I could breath but I just quiver in my seat as more desperate and useless, fake solutions flood my already weakening mind. My mouth was open as I try to scream for help but the world would not supply me the air I needed. So I cry for help with my eyes and pray that the tears are loud enough.

I feel light. Light enough to feel myself be pull out of my chair.

Off the ground.

And out of the window.

I am pulled by such force that I feel half of the world blur past my eyes in less than a second.

No...

I think that's what is happening right now.

Blur of the brown dirt.

Blur of the green vegetation.

Blinded by the yellow sun.

I had to close my eyes. I shut them tightly and anticipate the fall that is soon to come. I am not meant to fly after all.

Even though I was pretty sure I have closed my eyes, I can still see.

Blur of blue walls beside me.

Blur of the blue sky.

Blur of blue clothes.

Blur of blue, curious eyes.

Then clear white.

And darkness.

I move my eyes, trying to figure out where I am within this darkness. While I couldn't see where I am, I can feel it.

I feel something sharp inside my left hand.

I feel something rough on the fingertips on my right hand.

I feel my stiff body resting on something.

I feel my eyelids covering my eyeballs.

I open my eyes only to have my eyelids involuntarily close itself, causing me to blink multiple times before my eyes could stay open.

My brown eyes scann the classroom to find my classmates and teacher missing. The doors to my empty classroom are closed but the chalkboard is still covered with words. With the help of natural daylight shining in through the windows, I read today's lesson that the teacher was reading out to us as she wrote on the same chalkboard just a while ago.

I am so confused and so scared. My mind dazed and hazy.

Blur.

Then I feel an ache in my chest that bringst me out of my stupor. Finally, the muscles in my throat obey me and open up, allowing me to breath in the air that was wrongfully denied to me. I loudly gasp in a big amount of air greedily like I hadn't breathed in one hundred years. After feeling life continue its flow inside me, I can feel the sore and stiff muscles of my body. Panting lightly as I relax my muscles, I look down to my left hand. It is tightly grasping broken pieces of wood that was once a part of my desk. I slowly release the shards from my stiff fingers to reveal my red, uninjured palm.

Mummers are heard outside my classroom as the wooden door creak open. I look over to find my teacher and a few of my classmates peaking in through the small crack.

"Wan, are you okay?" The teacher asks concernedly.

But also fearfully.

I didn't answer. Actually, more like I couldn't because I know what okay feels like and this is not okay. But I have to be because I don't want them to look at me like that anymore. Why are they even outside? Why do they look so scared? Why are they pointing at me as they whisper into the ears of their friend?

I didn't even do anything this time.

* * *

The teacher sent my classmates outside to play while she and I remain in the classroom. She said we have to wait until my parents get here.

I just nodded quietly as I grasped my own hand for comfort.

My sight shifts to the doors that has been closed once again, fearfully waiting for my parents to come in.

I'm not sure what I have done but whatever it is, I'm in trouble if my parents need to be summoned to my school.

My sight shifts to my teacher, seated all the way in front of the class where her desk is.

I star at her as she write something on paper after paper after paper but she didn't spare a glance at me no matter how long I stared.

My sight shifts onto my desk.

The desk I'm not sitting in right now as I have been moved to the middle of the class. Further away from the teacher but not too far away to make me feel...mistreated. After all, having a child sit at the back of the class while waiting for her parents would seem...off.

The waiting is making my heart pump strongly.

My heart has pumped stronger such as when I exercise before but just until a few minutes ago, my heart feels more alive in each beat it makes. Every anxious breath I take ever since that few minutes ago has made me feel more energized.

The attention of the occupants inside the classroom are drawn to the doors as it is knocked on. The doors are opened to reveal my parents. My mother comes in first. My hair is just like hers. Dark brown, long and soft. She's a pretty, slender lady with a polite smile perfected with practice. My dad comes in after her and close the door behind him with his big, strong arms. The length of my hair is the same as his. A few inches below the shoulders.

My mother would also comment how I would have soft, kissable lips like my father's but I don't really understand that. Aren't all lips the same? I mean, sure I have seen lips that are thinner or bigger but aren't they all the same?

Whatever, I have more important things to focus on.

"Wan, come over here." My teacher calls me over to my parent's side as they each take a seat on the chairs already prepared for them. I remain standing because there were no seat prepared for me. That's fine by me because I get to feel a little taller since I'm not exactly vertically gifted. But my dad said that I would grow taller after 13.

Then maybe then people would stop throwing rocks at me when I'm taller and scarier than them! Just one year left... I really can't wait!

"Is there something wrong, Miss Xiong?" My mother asks my teacher.

Xiong lao shi takes an agitate breath through her nose as she rubs her temple with two of her fingers. I watch her and wait anxiously for her answer.

The teacher is silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out which approach would be the best approach.

"Your child glowed in the middle of class."

The blunt approach it is.

The family of three could only summon one answer.

"What?"

More like a question but close enough.

* * *

My parents had to take me home after the meeting. My teacher said none of my classmates were willing to come into class because they were afraid of me.

I think it's stupid. What kind of kid glows anyway!? That's just...just...DUMB!

My parents mumble to each other but because I was, oh, right next to them, I could hear what they're saying. Maybe they are mumbling so people who are passing by won't hear them instead? I don't know...

"I can't believe what she just said. Wan? _glowing? _I mean, the rock incident was one thing since it _could _happen but _glowing!?_ For the love of...!" My mother hiss in agitation.

I carefully take two steps away from her as we continue to walk home.

"I still think we should listen to the teacher and keep her home for a few days. I mean, if it was another kid that told the story, we can doubt it but this is a teacher and the whole classroom. We can't go on like this anymore. We need to get her to a priest or something. There's definitely something wrong with her."

My shoulders slump from my father's words. It's not like it hurts because I kind of expected this. I feel disappointment. I know I shouldn't because kids are not supposed to be disappointed with their parents. It's usually always the other way around. The parents are always right so there must be something wrong with me.

But deep down in my heart, I feel relieved. I'm finally gonna get help on figuring out what's wrong with me. Then maybe I can be normal again and people would stop...making me feel left out.

Although the situation is depressing, there's something inside of me that is making me feel kinda hopeful. It doesn't feel like it's coming from the priest thing but...more like I'm waiting. Even though I'm already outside of my classroom and on my way home, I feel like I'm waiting. Waiting for something to arrive from somewhere far away.

And it's going to be here soon.


	2. Children of Meetings

My father had left my mother and I at home to go back to the harbor. He had to leave in the middle of work because he had to come to my school. The moment he got home, he took his reindeer-alpaca and left.

"What did your teacher mean you were _glowing?"_

"I don't know..."

"How can you not know!?"

My mother huff as she runs a hand through her hair, trying to brush away her ferocity. Seating across from her, I copy her actions and glare at the ground as she tries to figure out what could have happened to me. We are both seated around our dining table, surrounded by...I don't even know what to call these things other than junk. Old junk at that. But my mother, for some odd reason, couldn't let these things go. What a waste of space.

"...Whatever it is, don't do it again. You might get taken away."

Don't have to tell me twice.

We live in Whale Tail Island. Just a few days ago, some Fire Nation ship docked in the island to restock. Everyone pretty much ran away from them.

Okay, maybe not ran away but they definitely kept their distance. Anyone with children were hidden away in their homes and no one dared to come out until word has spread that they were gone. But they will be back because they headed south. One day they would have to turn around and return here again. My dad saw the Fire Nation ship and said that there was only one. He said it was weird for there to be only one ship and there was even a kid, a teen to be precise, bossing the soldiers around. Although there was an older guy next to the teen, it was obvious that the teen was the leader.

My dad said the teen yells a lot.

"Answer me, Wan. Do you understand me?" My mother asks one more time as she wave her hand upwards in front of my face, signaling me to look up at her.

"Yes." I reply as I look at her. She look down at me with a stern expression but it softens after a few seconds.

It's not often that my mother looks like that. I don't really get much comfort from it though. Not saying I don't at all! I do love it when my mother is like this with me but I always know it will never last. She's pretty aggressive. I remember the times she were rough with me. She would apologize later and said it was because times are tough and we need to be tougher. It's not just me either. Every other kids have been roughed up by their parents before. It's nothing new nor is it uncommon.

I really hate this stupid war and the stupid fire nation. Because of them, I-...No...**we **have to live like this. My mother, my father, the other villagers. All of us. While I have never left this island, I'm pretty sure the rest of the world are miserable too.

Except from the Fire Nation of course. I bet they're sitting on their butts in big, comfy chairs drinking the blood of their enemy in gold goblets.

That's what I heard from the other kids at least.

My mother sighs and lean back to stretch. Just watching her stretch makes me realize how tense I am that it made me stretch along. My mother yawns and the motion soon infects me as well.

Finally feeling the air lightening up, I can look at my mother in the eye without feeling intimidated.

"I wonder how is that earthbending kid doing."

My mood soured immediately.

I really don't like that kid and the Fire Nation can take him away for all I care!

Of course I will never said that out loud. That's just asking for a slap to the face!

"Dunno." Is my distant reply. I really don't wanna talk about him.

It was because of him that the rock incident happened. If he hadn't earthbend that stupid rock at me, then no one would throw rocks at me either!

...

I sigh as I remember those times.

They actually used to throw rocks _at _me but after their parents found out, they were severely punished. Not as many kids throw rocks at me anymore but his friends would sometime throw rocks around me instead and run away like cowards.

I'm pretty durable though. Stronger than most kids but not the strongest. Maybe the strongest girl? I guess. At least in Whale Tail Island.

"Here."

My mother passes me a paper with a list of items on it.

"Go get them while I do the laundry. Then we can make dinner together." She says as she lifts herself her chair. I grimace at the list and I have every right to. Who likes to do extra chores...? My mother saw that look on my face as I remain seated. She rolls her eyes and lift me off the chair easily.

Maybe the strongest female _child._

"Come on now. Not like you have anything else to do."

I can sleep.

* * *

My parents and I seat around the table, ready to eat dinner. Our bowls and cups are mismatched with different sizes, colour, and design.

"I heard from the other sailors that they saw a big pillar of light down south." My dad notifies us as he take some vegetables into his bowl of rice.

"Wasn't that where those Fire Nation soldiers were heading?"

"Yup. Oh, and I'm also expecting a friend over. He said his kid can't fit into her old clothes anymore so he's giving it to Wan."

I stick my tongue out in disgust behind my bowl of rice. Yuck. Old clothes from someone I don't know and who knows what the clothes have been through!

Unexpectedly, although it has been expected, three knocks came from the door.

We exchange glances and my mother and I land our sights on my dad. He is expecting someone after all.

"That's pretty quick..."My dad mumbles and he gets up from the dinner table.

My mother gives a look to my dad before looking at the door suspiciously. I watch as she follows my dad to the door as I pick up my bowl of hot soup to drink. The last thing I saw before I focus my eyes on the soup was my mom picking up something from her pile of junk.

Wow, that's some soothing soup. I can feel it's warmth envelop my body. I put down my soup and sink into my chair as I breath out a hot breath and feel myself relax like I'm in a hot bath. The warmth didn't last forever and I suddenly start to feel unnaturally cold.

"Wow, you're pretty early." My dad says as he takes the box from his friend. My mother releases the breath she was holding, along with the statue in her hand as she sets it on the nearest flat surface.

"Hehe, you know me. I have no patience and I like to get things done quickly. Hey, did you see the pillar today? I remember that you were going fishing today but when I was leaving, your boat was still there!" Scratching his beard, he asks curiously.

My father only shakes his head with a smirk, "Nope, Sorry. My kid got in trouble at school so I had to leave late. Did you see it?"

His friend straightens his back proudly and place his fists on his hips," Yup! It was amazing!"

"What did it look like?"

"Mmmmm...Something like that."

My parents turn to the direction he is pointing. Confused at first, since he pointed inside their house but the answer became clear when they saw their own child glowing from her eyes.

"Shit." My father breathes as he pulls in his protesting friend into the house and close the door.

My mother quickly snatch me from my chair and lay me on the ground. She tries to close my eyes but it's hard to aim for the eyelids when there's two bright beaming lights shining at her face. All she can do is cover my eyes with her hands and even then, light would seep through the small gaps. My father opens the box and quickly take out a bunch of clothes and shove them to my face.

"So your kid glows and don't need to breath? Amazing...!"My parents turn to glare at the source of the oozing sarcasm but they couldn't argue since he did have a point.

Right when they were about to remove the clothes from the bottom of my face, my body started to spaz from panic...to what feels like an attempted murder!

My dad immediately removes his hands. I quickly sit up and crawl away from them in fear.

"What are you doing!?" I scream at them as my back hit against the...I would say wall but my mother's junk is in the way.

I watch as my parents struggle to answer, making me even more suspicious and afraid.

"...You glowed?" Is my dad's blunt answer.

I could only stare back in terror that broke my parent's guilty heart for being the recipient of my horror.

"Why...?" I croak out and wait for their answer.

"It was an accident, we didn't mean to, baby..!" My mother pleas as she reach out a hand for me. Even though I am far from her reach, I try to crawl away further with all of my strength that I push my mother's junk backwards and bump them against the wall, truly reaching the limit of how far I can distance myself from them right now.

Really...an accident? That's not a good enough reason!

"...Why?" I ask one more time. To purposely hurt them. I am a horrible kid, yes I am. But I like revenge.

* * *

My parents told me to stay in my room after dinner. I am not to come out even after tomorrow. Not until my dad comes home with someone who could help me. And who knows how long that will take! But I gladly stayed in my room. I don't care that I glowed, I will always remember that my parents nearly tried to kill me. I don't care if it was an accident!

They should have been more worried about me than...what other people would think if they find out what is happening to me...

Protecting me should be important to them, right? I'm their kid! That's what parents are supposed to do!

I sigh and push the thoughts away. Just thinking about it makes me so mad.

In the next day, around evening, I glow again. I'm having an afternoon nap because, really, locked in a room with nothing to do?

Sleep is the answer.

At first, I think that what I'm seeing is just part of a nightmare. All I am seeing are skeletons. It is my first time seeing human skeletons and I should have been afraid of it. But all I feel is rage and remorse that feels like it's melting me from the inside out. I feel it starting to bubble and rise up to my throat, remorse so black and rage so red on the verge of overflowing that it I'm starting to feel afraid of myself. I see the wind, blowing with such a force that gives me the impression the it's screaming somebody's name in grief. I feel myself being spread thin like my soul is being spread all over the world. I also feel that someone is here.

I feel like I'm not alone. Not in body but in spirit. When I try to find out who it is and to tell him or her to stop this idiocy that makes me glow and getting me into so much trouble, I have woken up. Lifting my head a little, my eyes shift to the door, waiting anxiously for my mother to just barge in and try to...'hide' my glowyness.

After a while of nothing, I sigh in relief before dropping my head back into my pillow. That episode was tiring. A tiring nap. How ironic.

* * *

It is night time and I have never felt more awake. All those evening naps have screwed me over from having a good night's sleep. I tried to find something to do in my room, but I can't focus on anything because the overwhelming anxiety that keeps pulling my eyes to my window.

My dark brown eyes stare at the deep, dark blue of the sky as the cold ocean wind acquaint itself to my room. Everything in my room is dark and the only source of light is the crescent moon looking down at us.

I mean, me.

Everyone should be asleep by now.

No one is awake.

Not even mother.

No one would know if I left my room.

I get off my bed and walk towards the window. Not a single soul is outside. I could run around and no one would care. I've always wanted to lay on the ground and stare at the sky. But I never did because I was afraid I might accidentally fall asleep outside and get into trouble the next morning. Didn't want to get a scolding. But this time, it's different, I'm awake, alive, and ready for anything. A simple night watching couldn't do much harm.

The urge beckons me to rebel my mother's orders. The guilt beckons me to obey my mother's orders.

Which do I listen to? Obey or calling?

...I must be turning 13 soon because I can feel the rebellious stage that my parents are so worried about turning on.

I climb up my window and jump to the ground. My house is a single story building so it's not really that hard to get outside. Hearing the grass crunch under my feet, I feel giddy with excitement.

I'm outside...at night!

I just start to dance on the spot, crunching more grass beneath my feet. Why have I never done this before!?

Then, just as I feel a hot breath being blown to the left of my ear, I gasp in cold air from fright. Quickly stumbling away, I fearfully turn to the source of the breath to quickly apologize to my mother.

But it was just another one of our Reindeer-Alpaca. The top half of my body feels faint from relief and slump forward and I breathe out air in agitation. Now I remember why I never sneaked out before. My mother pretty much stationed the reindeer-alpaca to make sure thieves won't climb into the house through my window.

"God damn it. You scared the living shit out of me." I hiss in low volume at the reindeer-alpaca. It isn't affected by my words and comes closer to lick my face. My scowl immediately morphs into a smile. But with a hint of disgust. I would never speak like this in front of my parents so it felt good to say it out loud when they're not around. Despite learning the fowl words from my parents themselves.

I pat the animal and whisper to it, "Stay quiet. Don't tell my mom okay?"

I turn took a few steps forward before having to turn around the shush the animal with one hand and telling it to stop moving with the other. It's trying to follow me but couldn't because it is tied to a wooden beam so it doesn't run away. My hands keep giving the signals while I walk away from my house backwards. Once, far enough, I run away to find an open field to lay down in.

Come on, what's the worse that could happen from just being outside on an island for a little while?

* * *

"Should we really enter a village at this time of night?" Katara asks as they spot some lights from an island up ahead. "People might think it's suspicious."

"Don't worry, Katara. With two strong men, you won't have to worry about a single thing. We'll protect you." Sokka assures his sister but only succeeded in annoying her.

"Hey, I can take care of myself just fine!" Katara snaps before walking up to Aang. She has faith that Aang would be a better partner to converse with.

"Hey Aang, how are you doing?" the waterbender asks with concern. She watches Aang as he looked on at Whale Tail Island with empty sadness. Ever since finding out about his people, he hasn't smiled. A sad smile, yes but she wants to see the smile she remembers back home before he knew about the war. No one could blame him though but no one could help him feel better either.

How on earth does one cheer up a person who lost his entire people and blames himself for it for not being there to protect them?

Nothing. No one can soften the truth.

"Whale Tail Island is Air Nomad territory. Or at least, back then. I don't really feel that good about going there because if my people really have been..." Aang tightens his grip on Appa's reign as shame overwhelms him once more. He even feels too ashamed to hear his own voice to complete his sentence.

Katara waits silently, giving him the time he needs to find his voice again. But as the silence continue to stretch on, it was obvious that Aang just wants this topic to slip away. Sokka shifts uncomfortably as he watches his sister do the thing she does best. There's not much he could do anyway and being all emotional and stuff is just not manly. He has to be strong and tough, in body and in heart. Sokka has his sister to be his counterpart so he doesn't have to be.

"We don't have to go there, if you don't want to. We can go onto another island. How about the one we just passed?" Katara offers but Aang shook his head.

He really doesn't want to head back in that direction. He just wants to get as far away from the Southern Air temple as he possibly could.

"No, I want to move forward." Aang insists as he turn to look at Katara and smile the best he could. "Who knows, we might make a new friend, like Momo!". All attentions turn to the sleeping Lemur, reminding them that they should be getting some sleep too. "In the next morning, of course. Appa needs to rest. Right, Appa?"

Appa makes a sound that would be as close to the sound of agreement that an animal could make. Aang pats the head of his pet bison, the only friend he has left from a hundred years ago. He _must_ take good care of Appa no matter what.

* * *

I lay in the open field and slowly count the stars in the sky. But for some odd reason, it feel like the stars are blinking. Like, that star! It just disappeared from the sky and came back a second later. Stars don't do that!

I think.

Losing count of the stars that I had in my head, I focus on the blinking stars instead. It is like it the starts are blinking in order of a line. I watch with mild curiosity as the stars slowly blink one after another, heading towards the moon. Then I saw a cloud is passing by the moon but I think that it is too...solid for a cloud.


	3. Children of Unexpected Reunion

"Aang?" Katara calls out, noticing Aang's attention suddenly being brought to the ground of the island. She tries to convince herself that he is just trying to focus on making a safe and quiet landing but the way he snapped his eyes to the direction so suddenly...It worries her. Never leaving past the mountain of ice and into lands filled with grass and trees, who knows what could happen and what could be out there. Despite what Sokka said earlier, having her older brother and the Avatar by her side really does gives her some comfort.

Aang seems to be in too much of a dazed to speak, his only answer was to move the reigns on Appa and get ready for a landing, his eyes fixed on the far away ground.

Katara follows his eyes and Sokka follows their example, finding whatever that is unknown to them.

But Aang know what he is chasing. Kind of. A calling, one could say.

* * *

Remember when I had to choose order or calling? When I had to choose to obey my mother or my curiosity?

Yeah.

Complete regret. An earthbender couldn't have sunk this rock in my stomach any lower if they could.

Counting the stars under the soft moonlight does not make up a single piece of dirt of this messy situation that I have gotten myself into.

That solid looking cloud is no cloud. Cloud don't just suddenly change directions and lower itself closer to the ground. Danger does.

I quickly rise myself from the ground.

Even before my fingers could leave the ground, my feet are already kicking yet I can't leave my spot as my feet keeps slipping on the earth's surface. My feet is kicking too wildly and quickly, just like my heart, panicking, like my mind. None of me could just get a grip and let me leave! My hair blocked my already limited view because of the night. It did not help either that the wind is resilient on keeping my hair in my face.

The universe just wants me to get caught.

And that just annoys me greatly.

I grit my teeth and beg for mercy. I dig my fingers into the ground and just pull myself from that spot. I didn't care that dirt are settling under my fingernails as I stumble to regain my balance, I manage to do so after a few steps and skedaddled on out of there! Running for my life that not until now I realize how valuable it is to me.

I am NOT gonna get caught or killed or capture by a...a...a stupid cloud!

* * *

"Hey! I see someone running!" Sokka's sharp eyes points out a small figure running from a small open field and into a small forest.

"I think he's heading for the village. Maybe we shouldn't bother him and just camp somewhere further for the night." Katara suggests as she calmly watch the figure disappear into the trees.

"But what if he's an angry villager that will chase us out! I mean, it's not everyday ANYONE sees a flying animal descend from the sky." Sokka argues while gesturing to Appa with his arms wide open.

"Well, I think he's just scared. If we leave him alone, then maybe he'll leave us alone." Katara inserts her opinion confidently while crossing her arms.

"Or...we could just go and reason with him? You know, talk so there's no angry mobs and we might even get to sleep in a place with a roof over our heads?" Aang suggests. He has been feeling like there is a string in his chest that was getting tighter and tighter as time goes by. As that figure runs further and further. He really tried to push this feeling away but there's this spark of hope that he might find another Air Nomad. Someone he would recognize and reinforce the belief that his people are not dead. That they are still trying to survive and will welcome him back with open arms.

Appa lands on the ground and Aang immediately starts to give chase the moment Appa's feet touches the ground.

"Stay here and take care of Appa! Let me deal with him!"

Despite his friends' protests, Aang has already ran into the forest with a gust of wing exploding from beneath his foot.

Although the forest is dark and there is no sign of the figure, Aang could feel where he is. Just ahead, a little to the left. He soon reaches the end of the forest and sees the figure ahead of him.

He is surprised that the figure is small, just like a child's size should be,

Hearing unnatural sounds erupting from behind, the figure turns to see Aang, charging with the speed of the wind. The sight results a fearful squeal and an extra effort to run faster to the village that is already in sight.

He is further surprised but slightly suspicious if it was just a boy squealing like a girl but that's unlikely as he can see her hair fluttering in the wind.

Realizing that the display of his bending is what causing her to run in fear, he stops bending and run at his normal speed which is already quite fast thanks to his training.

He is disappointed that he wasn't chasing someone he thought he was but he can't just let her run off like that. He doesn't want another kid to run from him. From fear especially.

"Wait! I'm friendly!" Aang calls out, trying to stop this unnecessary chase.

The girl turns around once more but didn't stop running as she only wants to check the distance between them. She didn't even say anything and continue to run towards a tall fence that easily reaches above their heights. Tall grass growing on this side of the fence while it is short on the other side. Aang figures that she would have to climb over which would be enough time for him to catch up.

But...

He didn't expect for the girl to suddenly fall onto her knees, slide into and pass the grass. Aang's speed deteriorates slightly from the shock but it quickly left as soon as it came when he sees the girl continuing to run deeper into the village.

Aang is tempted to slide on his knees as well but he decides to airbend himself over the fence instead. The wind attracts the girl's attention and turn around in curiosity. What she has seen just scared her even more, seeing a silhouette with the moon shining brightly behind him as if encouraging him to catch her. It is terrifying to see a human do something to inhuman that she is convinced that the person chasing her is not human so he must be a danger.

Tears are starting to blur her vision but she roughly wipes them away with her sleeves. She can't have tears blurring her vision right now. She needs her sight more than ever as she hear footsteps catching up behind her.

Aand reaches out his hand, just a few inches away from her shoulder. He is so close that he could feel her hair tingling his fingers. Then suddenly, she disappear from sight and the next thing he feels is a rock that reaches to his knees,

"Whoa!" Aang blurts as he feels the stone twitch, as if bracing itself.

Then he feels the wind as he fly ungracefully in the air due to his running momentum, and then earth burying his face.

Aang's groan of hurt is muffled by the earth that are threatening to break through his lips and invade his mouth. Pursing his lips as tightly as he could, he sits up from the ground and tries to blow the dirt from his lips but that only gives the dirt an opportunity to sneak in. He was so occupied on spitting, blowing, and wiping the dirt from his mouth, he almost forgot about the chase.

Almost.

He still feels the presence behind him.

Quickly spinning around with air bending, he finally got a front look of her. She looks pretty average. Dark brown hair with dark brown eyes and skin that is just lightly tanned. Her face slightly chubby and a small button nose. She could have been considered cute to Aang if she wasn't looking at him so fearfully.

When their eyes meet, they both feel an electrical surge of energy. Yet, both react differently. The shock stuns Aang as he lands on the ground while the girl feels the electricity pump extra energy into her muscles, urging her to run away again. Aang just stands there and watches her run into an alley between two houses and turn a corner to run behind them.

Despite being out of sight, he can still sense her, running and turning, probably thinking he was still chasing her. Feeling a shift in the air and a weight on his shoulder, Aang turns his head to find Momo. Aang looks pleased to see him but grimace when Momo holds a bug that was on his head and eats it. The crunching sound of the bug's exoskeleton is just a little less than pleasant. Aang can only pat Momo as a thank you for getting the bug off his head.

"Aang! Why did you suddenly ran off like that?" Katara calls out as Sokka and her run towards him after climbing over the fence. They must have sent Momo to find Aang, worried for his sudden eagerness to run after a stranger.

"Did you get him?" Sokka questions as he enthusiastically brandish his boomerang. Eye's squinting into the darkness for the target or any angry mob.

"No, no no!" Aang alerts at the sign of the boomerang, hands waving in front of him as he eyes the weapon. "It was just a girl!"

Sokka has to pause to process the information and tuck his prized weapon away. Shrugging, "Eh, if it was a girl then there's not much to worry about."

Katara glares at his sexist brother and elbows him in the side for revenge. "So where is she now?"

"Somewhere over there." Aang says nonchalantly as he points south west of his position. His friends follow his finger to only see a house in the direction he is pointing at.

"In that house?" Sokka asks for confirmation but when he turns to Aang, he finds that his bald friend has already started to run where he pointed to but passes the house.

"No! It's somewhere further! Follow me!"

Katara follows first before Sokka had to follow begrudgingly as not to get left behind.

"Why are we even chasing this girl!?" Sokka yells out to Aang only to be hushed by Katara.

"Shush! Are you trying to wake up this entire village? You might get that angry mob you wanted!" Katara hiss. Aang, hearing Katara's warning, slows down to get closer to them.

"I just felt a connection. Like, when I first saw her, it felt like I found an old friend. Even now I can still tell where she is. She has stopped running and is probably resting from the chase before." The Water Tribe siblings could only give Aang a stare of disbelief and discomfort from the amount of information.

"But...didn't you say this was a girl? If she's an old friend shouldn't be like...over a 100 years old?"

"I don't know, Katara. That's why I'm chasing her. To find out."

"Yeah, as much as I like a good chase, I'm not all the comfortable chasing a little girl in the middle of the night." Sokka reasons as he stops running.

Hearing how her brother had phrased it, Katara too stops in her tracks. When Aang notices his friends are no longer behind him, he stops to turn to them, eyes silently pleading for them to just follow him again. Panting lightly, Katara breaths in before pushing her voice out of her dry throat, "He's right, Aang. We would just end up scaring her. Even more if we hadn't already."

"We?" Sokka parrots. Katara refuses to correct herself.

"B-but...!" Aang tries to argue but when he remembers how scared she looked when he turned to look at her, he realizes that they are right. His shoulders slump in disappointment at not being able to find some answers and guilty for making a complete stranger afraid him. Not even as a powerful Avatar but as a person. That hurts.

Looking at his disheartened posture, Katara goes up and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Look Aang, if you want, we can come back tomorrow when the sun is up. We'll search for this girl, alright?"

Sokka opens his mouth to retort that this search is dumb and who would care about some girl that Aang seems to be attracted to but he froze. The memory of Aang losing himself into the Avatar state after learning his people are dead made him think. Looking over at Aang being hugged by his sister made him remember that this oh so powerful Avatar is like...12? Younger than him. And Sokka's eyes glazes over into the past of when his father and the rest of the warriors of the tribe had to leave.

They still haven't return.

If Aang says he needs to find this girl because he feels like she is an old friend, Sokka decides takes a moment to reconsider his words. Sokka is not like his sister but he still has some optimism too!

"Yeah! I mean, we still need to stock up on things like food so we might be here for a while tomorrow." Sokka suggests as he scratches the back of his head. Just saying this made his brain feel itchy.

Katara is shocked, to say the least, at the words coming out of her brother's mouth. "Sokka...That's sort of unlike you to be..."

Sokka grins and move his hand away from his head to rub a finger below his nose. "Nice? Yup, that's me! Sokka the nice guy!"

Getting his fill of ego stroking, he turns and make his way back to Appa. "Come on! We still have to make camp. It looks like it's too late to ask anyone for a room to sleep in."

* * *

I make my way back home, still trembling from what just happened. Even as I replay the sequence of events that had happened again and again in a loop in my mind, It is still hard to swallow. I tighten the muscles in my throat, as if it'll help me accept it but I still couldn't digest it. I finally reach home and weakly crawl over my window after a shaky pat on the sleeping reindeer-alpaca.

My small room have never felt so safe and my bed has never looked so soft and welcoming. Taking small, tired steps toward it, I lose the will to climb under the cover and just fall on the bed. Feeling the cold, cruel wind that lured me to the outside and into that...MESS...I grab my cover and just roll it on.

Falling asleep is an easy task compared to the rest of what I had to do today.

* * *

I breathe the warm morning air, welcoming it greatly as I can feel it burn yesterday night's adventure.

Never doing that again.

"Be quick and try to get home safely, Wan." My mother reminds me from behind as she watches me run towards the market with great concern.

She wouldn't let me out at first so I had to argue that she can't just keep me in my room forever. Eventually, my mother allowed me go outside to gather some items on a list. Again.

I sigh at how boring this is getting. A small part of me even wished for the thrill of being chased again.

But it's only a very, very, small part of me.

And it is a very, very, small joke to myself.

I look down at the list one more time to read the first thing on it and start looking left and right for the stalls that sells them.

"Soap...soap...soap..."

"Hey, little girl. Shouldn't be at school right now?"

I turn my head towards the familiar voice. It's a friendly fruit vendor.

"I came down with an illness so I got sent home. I can't go to school for a few days." I explain myself before looking at today's variety of fruits, all arranged by colour. It's nice but not on the list.

"If you're sick shouldn't you be inside?"

I just smiled politely and answer with the best half-lie I could come up with, "Sunlight and fresh air are the best medicine, aren't they?"

The fruit vendor laughs heartily at my answer, "Well then, stay safe, Wan!"

I gave a small bow and a wave as I walk away. The practiced polite smile I had had been replaced by a genuine one. How could a person not smile from a laugh like that? Laughter automatically makes anyone smile!

Unless it's the evil mocking one.

"Welcome, children! Which fruit has succeeded in attracting your eyes today?"

I hear the fruit vendor attempt to attract customers.

I didn't pay anymore attention as I continue searching for soap until a familiar voice explode from behind me.

"That's her!"

The voice send shivers down my spine as yesterday night's memory came to invade the inner peace I had just not so long ago. It's almost not fair.

I turn to see same kid from yesterday. Oh how could I forget him. Bald with blue tattoos on his skin, wearing the clothes that reminds me of the bright sun and the same brightness can be seen showing on his face. Mine, on the other hand, dread.

I turn and ran.

"Hey, wait! Guys, help me!"

GUYS!? There's more than one of him!? Oh great. _Ooooohhh...great..!_

I maneuver through the crowd with minor difficulty. I have to spin on the balls of my feet and duck to narrowly dodge baskets from hitting me, shift my footing to easily slip through the gaps between tall adults, forced my hand in front of people about to get in my way to stop them in their tracks to let me pass.

I turn around to see how far they are but I find no one.

That's when I noticed. Other shoppers had stopped what they were doing to awe at something. Fingers pointing a little behind and far above the ground. Shifting my view, I could only gape in disbelief as I watch the boy dressed with the colour of the sun chase after me...

_from the bloody roof._

This confirms that this kid is the same kid from yesterday and I scowl at him.

"Wait! I just want to talk!" I hear him yell from above.

"No!" I forcefully reject.

I find myself nearing the end of the market street. There's nothing but open space and my instincts are telling me to turn around. I can't lose someone who can _fly_ to the roof in an open area!

Shoving the paper my mom gave to me into my pocket, I bend the knees of my left leg to the ground and my right leg was straight in front of me. All of my weight was all on my left leg as I try to stop my momentum while my hands are on the ground, fingers digging into the earth for balance. Once I feel my momentum is low enough, I use my fingers to pull myself and run back deeper into the market street.

"Please! We want to apologize for our friend for scaring you yesterday!"

I hear a female voice coming from an alley that I just passed. Turning around, I freeze as I looked into the blue eyes I swear I saw once before.

"Ah! You're the girl of my dreams!" I accidentally project.

After gaining some self control, my face goes red from embarrassment.

_FROM my dreams, Wan._

**_FROM _**_my dreams, you stupid idiot!_

"Psyche!" I continue and turn to run away from the girl.

_Smooth recovery. No one would suspect a thing._

The girl is a little too stunned from my sudden accidental confession to chase after me but as soon as the flying kid of the sun brings her back to reality, she continues to chase after me.

Her eyes are clearly confused and projected the perfection of complete confusion.

I can't run in the market street forever. They'll catch me for sure! I don't know how many people are this kid's 'guys' but I'm bound to get caught soon. I need to run to somewhere else.

I need to run home!

I need my mom!

Turning to a corner, I am surprised momentarily from suddenly seeing a teenage boy turning into the same alley as me from the other end. I suspect that he's one of the 'guys' because of his odd clothing. He also looks kinda like that girl.

"Ahah! Found you!"

Yup. One of the guys.

He have his hands raise above him, ready to grab me but I continue running. I got a trick up my sleeves for people taller than me. I charge head on aggressively, even faster than before, causing the surprised teen to stop in his tracks. With great worry, he brought his hands up to shield his face and torso.

But I wasn't aiming for an attack as I slide onto my knees and slide between his legs. Once I pass him, I got back onto my feet and ran.

"'Found you!?' Could you make us sound any more like crooks!?" I hear the girl yell at the taller male before they continue to chase after me. But by then, I have turned another corner and they lost sight of me.

Two down, one to go.

Leaping from the roof tops, I heard the sound of someone landing behind me.

I don't even need to look behind me to know who it is. I can _sense _it.

"Leave me alone!"

"Wait! I'm trying to apologize for yesterday!"

"Well, apology accepted!" Not really. "Now go away!"

"Can we stop running just for a moment? I just want to talk!"

"I'll stop if you stop chasing me!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

I heard the earth grinding as he uses his strength to stop running without falling over.

I let him watch me turn another corner and continue running.

_Nope._

"HEY!"

I can't help but grin mischievously at my achievement. But the glory was short lived.

I can feel a breeze brushing my back. It fewls like the breath of a spirit opening its mouth, about to take a bite of me. It feels like he's already behind me when in truth he has just turned into the corner, looking nothing like the demon that I always end up imagining.

"Why didn't you stopped?" I hear him whine from behind me.

The fear that the wind blew my way didn't fade just like the memory of yesterday. My need to turn corners becomes stronger as I turn every corner that comes my way.

I use to think that the construction placement of the buildings are just ridiculous. No, I don't care that the citizens came from the village of Chin had moved to Whale Tail Island when they got tired of the War between Chin and Avatar Kyoshi and because there were so few people back then they just randomly built houses wherever they liked that slowly grew cluttered as the years go by.

But now I'm grateful for these ridiculous corners.

"Well, what did you expect from the person you chased in the middle of the night!? I have every right to run away from you!"

"I thought you forgave me for that!"

"I lied! Again!"

* * *

Aang, sensing that this conversation is going no where, leaps from the alley and into the sky. He sees the girl running towards a house, presumably her home and land just a little ahead of her, right in front of the door.

"Please, I'm sorry and-"

Apparently, he underestimated the strength she has been using to run and she collides into him. He swear he feels something on his face break as he is pushed backwards into the door of the house. Even the door couldn't handle the momentum and breaks down into the house. Aang feels the girl continue rolling off of him and stopping just above his head as his back lay flat on the ground. Only after a few seconds, did his legs join the rest of his body on the ground after being in the air for a while.

Both children groan from the collision as they try to upright themselves.

"Wan!"

"Mom!" Aang can hear her getting up from the ground and running towards her mother.

"Who's that?"

Silence.

The girl named Wan watch as the boy raise his back from the ground. Still seated on the fallen door, he turns to her.

"Oh goodnes, you're bleeding!" The mother leeaves her daughter's side and kneels next to Aang as blood drips down from his nose.

Aang barely feels a thing when the mother reaches for a cloth to wipe the blood from his nose. Not even when the mother chides in his ear and force his hand to hold the cloth onto his nose himself. Or even when the woman had to go outside the calm the crowd gathering and tries to shoo them away.

Aang just stares at her. The light allowing him more detail of the girl compared to yesterday's dark night.

Everything felt familiar.

She feels like an old memory. And old friend. That had died a long, long time ago. Something he didn't know he missed until now.

It feels like someone has opened the door to home that has been locked away and welcoming him with open arms.

He watches as she slowly walk up to him, eyes brimming with tears and saying something repeatedly but he is too deep drowning in nostalgia to hear her properly.

"I...ry...'m...or..."

He wraps his arms around the welcoming arms of home.

* * *

I am so confused.

Just yesterday this kid was the reason that I cried.

Now today, he's crying.

And because he ended up crying, from what I think was because of the nosebleed, I cried from guilt.

I went up to say I'm sorry but he didn't seem to respond. So I tried again and again, trying to get a response. But nothing.

I was so worried that I had broken him from when I accidentally ran into him.

I really did try to stop running but I couldn't stop in time.

And the way he looked at me. How it was shining from tears and broken hope but still has its radiance. He looks even more out of place that he usually does with his weird clothes.

Now everyone in the village, anyone close by actually, is trying to look over and around my mother, catching sight of the crying boy raining tears onto my shoulders, sobbing. Not even bothering to hold up the cloth to his bloody nose anymore, letting the bloody cloth onto drop on my knees and fresh blood from his nose dripping onto my chest.

I have no idea what to do.

He is hugging me so strongly, a little too strongly, that I feel like I am loosing air.

I feel so bad because I'm the reason that made him cry. Don't understand the hug but oh well.

My arms that had went limp from the numbing shock of the hug have risen to his back.

One hand patting on one of his shoulder blades, and the other just rested on the other shoulder blade.

Feeling that this wasn't enough, seeing the boy didn't react to it at all, I wrap him into a hug equally as enveloping. One hand gently rubbing his back.

"Aang!"

"Please let us in! He's our friend!"

Hearing two familiar voices, I look up to find the same dark-skinned sibling dressed in blue trying to pass my mother.

My mother turns to me and I nod eagerly.

They are allowed to pass my mother and kneel down to the side of their friend.

The girl tries to remove him from me but he only held on tighter. Her eyes absorbs the sight with sympathy and look into my confused and overwhelmed eyes, silently requesting my permission to hold onto him a little longer. My reaction to her silent request is to hold onto the quivering body of the boy as he tries to wilk himself to calm down.

"Sokka, help the lady."

The boy named Sokka nods and rise from the ground, his voice booming a lie that there is nothing to see here as he walks up to my mother's side.

Today is just...a mess.

* * *

Author's note: If you had managed to reach this far, I must applause you. I really did not expect anyone to even reach this far. So really, thank you for your time and precious attention.

Have a good day, readers.


	4. Children of Discord

All 5 of us are seated around the dining table.

The children have their eyes glued to the table, trying to avoid any accidental exploitation of secrets through their eyes. Including me.

All of us are avoiding the piercing gaze of my mother, really. Her eyes scan the three children seated across from her, like a falcon-hawk eagerly but patiently waiting for an opening to catch its prey when it least expects it.

My gaze would wonder to the 3 strangers seated across from me on the other side of our rectangular table. Nothing on the worn wood but 5 cups of tea in mismatched cups by colour, size, and design, a tea pot, and some of our hands. Once in a while, some of them would gaze up but would quickly look down whenever their eyes connected with mine.

Our shoulder's jump when my mother suddenly speaks, "Well, I believe we have enough peace and quiet to have a private chat."

The girl is the first to gather her bearings and answer my mother while looking her dead in the eye, "Yes. Lets."

I can only be impressed by her. My mother has an intimidating aura that could even scare sailors. Heck, she _does_ have an intimidating aura that indeed scare my dad's sailor friends.

"Let us introduce ourselves. My name is Katara." She place her thickly gloved hand to where her heart would be and bow her head in respect.

I raise an eyebrow, if I could but I sadly don't have that ability so I could only pretend to raise an eyebrow at her thickly gloved hand. After Katara spoke, the rest of us finally manage to look at something other than wood or evaporating tea. I lift my head up and examine her clothing. It's...kind of thick. I understand that it can really get cold here sometime but no need for something like that!

"That's my brother, Sokka." Katara gestures her hand at the male seated further away from her. Sokka bows his head as well, following his sister's example.

"And this is Aang." Aand grins sheepishly because he knows his eyes are swollen and gives a small, quick bow. Clearly he doesn't feel all that comfortable but he is definitely trying his best to remain cheerful.

"Sorry about your door." Aang croaks as he sink his head further into his shoulders, grin still in place.

I look at our currently poor excuse of a door. No longer connected to the house, it lay uselessly on the ground, further away from the door entrance. As a substitute for the door, Sokka and my mother pushed a wooden cupboard in front of the entrance. I remember how the girl FROM my dreams tried to help me move Aang off the door so Sokka could move the door away from the entrance to make way for the cupboard. It was the biggest 'Go away' sign we could ever put up.

Thankfully, the crowd got the message and left after a while in a mass of huddled gossip.

"My name is Aisha." My mother introduces herself and bows.

"I'm Wan." I introduce myself next and bow my head. Once I raise my head, I found that everyone have seem to relax. Aang is no longer trying to hide in between his shoulders either. I glance at my mother at the corner of my eye though. She has not said a thing about the door.

Which means she's not gonna let it go with just an apology. Oh boy...

My mother waits patiently until the children in front of her sip some of the tea. She could hear in their voice that they're throats are dry and tired.

"So...would someone care to explain what happened that lead to the destruction of my door?"

Yeah, she's definitely not gonna let the door go.

Katara and Sokka exchange glances before settling their eyes on Aang seeing as the reason to chase me didn't come from them but from him. The weight of the responsibility seem to have cause him to sink into the chair but soon realizes that this is not something he can run away from.

"It's my fault, ma'am." Aang raises his hand with a sigh.

My mother raises an eyebrow as a signal for him to continue.

Clearly I did not inherit that very useful trait.

"I...had..uhh..."Aang waves a finger in a circular motion like he was stirring up a reason in his mind. Actually, that's precisely what he is doing.

My mother read his reaction which causes her to raise her arms and rest her elbows on the table. She clasps her fingers together and press them against her lips, patiently waiting to analyze more of Aang's testimony.

I unintentionally lean forward in curiosity as I, too, await an explanation from Aang.

Aang couldn't exactly tell the mother that he felt a spiritual pull that caused him to chase her daughter around and have a sudden emotional breakdown. He turns to his friend for some help but both of them inconspicuously shrug at him. Clearly he is on his own.

"Well, I just sort of had to meet her?" Aang weakly offers. The statement alone is weak enough but his shrugging somehow manages to make it weaker.

Hearing no response from my mother, he know he needs to try harder. With a frustrated sigh and a scratch on his head, he slowly attempts to form sentences that is understandable.

"I felt this some sort of pull. Like I had to meet her. I actually didn't know it was your daughter, though! In fact, I thought she was a man!"

HE THOUGHT I WAS A WHAT!?

Sensing my glaring, he turns to me and apologize with his hands in front of him. As if that will save him.

"I-I mean! Not like you're manly looking or anything! It was just really dark and I couldn't really see that well at-"

_Oh fuck._

"At the alleys! Right! Don't worry about it really!" I pull a complete 180 along with one the most cheerful smile I can muster. "I'm sure you couldn't see me that well from behind either. I mean, after all, you were chasing me from behind."

"But it was-"

"In the alley."

"No, it was-"

"Dark because of the alley."

"But-"

"Shadows and all!"

"Wan!"

I wince when my mother roars my name. I was desperately rude but I **really** do not want my mother to know I wondered out at night.

If this kid is going down, which he obviously is, he is **not **dragging me down with him.

"Why don't you let him explain himself."

The amount of force in that sentence clearly means that it is not a question at all but an order.

The moment my mother turns to Aang, so did I, with a fierce glare with an even fiercer message behind it.

_You tell, you die._

"Aaaah..." Aang is momentarily stunned from my expression before turning to my mother who turns to me to see what was he staring at. I project a practiced smile at my mother until she turns to focus back on Aang.

The Water Tribe Siblings stay at the edge of their seat, sipping tea to pull off an image that there are too busy to participate in this conversation.

"Right...The alley. At the market. Dark...shadows? Very tall! It was really hard to see."

Bemuse expressions were his response. Was that really the best he could do? He needs to learn how to lie better.

"He chased me at the market. Quite all of a sudden starting from the fruit stall. The fruit vendor saw." I say, creating a starting point for this lie.

Half-truth but close enough.

"Yeah. I..felt a pull like something was calling for my attention and when I turned, I saw a man! Which..I thought was the fruit vendor but it was actually your daughter. I tried to talk to her but she just suddenly ran away."

_Oh thank the Heavens. He CAN lie!_

My mother turns to me and I saywith a straight face easily, since it wasn't a lie actually, "He had weird clothes and he looked weird."

"I looked weird?" Aang turns to his friends. "Do I look weird?"

"You're bald with tattoos and wearing the colours of sunshine." I bluntly state and everyone takes in all of the features that I have pointed out all at once.

No one can argue with me that he indeed stands out a little too much.

"That's still not a good reason to run." My mother argues as her shoulders start to relax. She's buying the story.

"What if a man suddenly runs to you for no good reason with great enthusiasm?"I ask seriously as I want this topic to just end as soon as possible.

My mother pauses for a moment to picture the scenario before raising her hands up in surrender.

"Okay. I see your point."

_Oh thank the Heavens again. Karma must be trying to make it up to me for yesterday and today._

She rise from her seat and heads towards the door.

"You kids stay here, alright? I'm gonna go find someone who can fix our door."

"Um...We should really leave-"

"Stay." That is an order. Not a request.

All of us nod quickly obediently and watch her move the cupboard slightly and squeezes through the gap. I went to close the gap after my mother calls out for me to do so. Nobody says anything until we hear her footsteps slowly fade off into nothing.

Then all of us release the tense air in our lungs in unison. I look up and realize that I'm stuck in my house with three strange kids...wonderful.

"So...mind telling me what's really going on?" I ask as I cross my arms while leaning against the cupboard.

"It's what I just said. I just felt some kind of pull that made me feel like I needed to find it. To find you."

I once again pretend to raise my eyebrow at Aang.

"...Didn't you feel it too?"

I shake my head with confidence.

"Anything?"

I take a moment to think about it.

I don't think being scared for my life to the point I was reduced to tears count as this 'pull'. A repellent more like it but definitely not 'pull'.

I shake my head again. I feel a little sorry when Aang's shoulders slump once again but I really shouldn't. I don't really owe him that, do I?

"Look, Aang. This is clearly a mistake. We should just go back to Appa. He's been out there waiting for us." Sokka says as he get off his seat.

"Oooh no. Where do you think you're going?" I ask as I stand defiantly in front of the cupboard.

This damn cupboard is really confusing me.

As I stood defiantly in front of the entrance.

"Back to our other friends? We came here to help Aang find you but since this is really going no where, we should really get going." Sokka explains it simply as he walks toward me. Seeing as I have not move from my spot, Sokka stands in front of me as he attempts to use his height to intimidate me but I remain rooted to where I stand stubbornly.

In the background, Katara is trying to get Aang to get up from his chair so they could leave but he seem reluctant. Yet, Katara manages to guide him off the chair but slowly.

"Would you mind getting away from the entrance? We would like to leave."

"No way. My mom would have my head if I just 'let you leave'"

"Well, it's not like a little girl like you could force me to stay here anyway."

Both of us are getting slightly irritated. Sokka pulls the first move by putting a hand on my shoulder as he attempts to move me out of the way.

"Please." I snap as I smack his hand off my shoulder. I glare maliciously at Sokka and he returns a slightly less threatening glare. Or maybe I was making myself think that way just so I would feel like I have the upper hand? Either way, my determination is set. My mother told us to stay? I'll make sure everybody stays even if it means I have to use force.

Sokka's eyes starts to twitch involuntarily. Just like how his fists are tightening involuntarily and how he scowls involuntarily. He is too tired for this after the physically draining chase around the market and the emotional stress from witnessing a friend's breakdown and being interrogated by a woman.

But he still have some honour and will not raise a hand against a woman. His father taught him better than that. So instead, he tries again but with both arms.

When he places both of his hands on both side of my arms, I smack them both off and pushed him on his chest aggressively that he stumbles a few steps back and fell onto the carpet below him.

"Sokka!" His sister cries and run to his side. Katara glares at me as she kneels down and have a hand out protectively in front of Sokka. I looks back with a blank face as if I had done nothing wrong.

It's not my fault that they just wont listen to my mother. Didn't _their _parents teach them any manners?

"Wan, please! We don't have to fight. Please let us go and we wont bother you ever again." Aang pleas as the situation starts to get hostile.

"Sorry, Aang but I can't. I need to listen to the-"

"_Fire nation..._"

A breath suddenly interrupt me. All of our attention are pulled to the ground. Sokka's wide eyes are staring at my carpet. Particularly, the corner of the carpet.

"Fire nation carpet..." Sokka's discovery seems to have left him dumbfounded. He stares at that particular spot like he was witnessing the truth of the universe unraveling in front of him. When his mind regain the ability to control his body, he shoots up from the ground a hand is gripping the handle of his boomerang.

"She's fire nation!"

I can only respond in irritate disbelief showing all over my face. This stupidity doesn't even deserve a vocal response.

"You can't seriously be judging me by the junk in my house!?" Maybe an angry one.

"Sokka, calm down." Katara say with the tone that sets an example of what kind of calm Sokka should project but he rejects her advice. Katara looks up worryingly at her brother. The face is that not of the goofy older brother she was usually annoyed with. It is of a warrior with a deadly calling for blood.

I open the cupboard behind me to pull out anything in there to use as a weapon. My hand gropes blindly as I refuse to let Sokka leave my sight. That's just asking for a slice to the throat. Feeling something that feels like I could grip easily with my hand, I pull it out. The object was longer than I expected as it pushes out some other junks to the ground.

"Hey! Isn't that an airbender's staff!?" Aang exclaimss with new found energy from the shock of seeing a familiar item from a place that he would least expect it.

"A what?" I blurt out confusedly. He is pointing at the stick I am holding but I still don't get it.

"And are those Betrothal Necklaces!?" Katara hisses at the ground next to my feet.

I quickly snap my attention to find a box that has opened from falling out of the cupboard and sprawled out a bunch on necklaces.

"There's 5 of them! Where did you get them?" Sokka hisses as the boomerang is raise to the air.

Clearly I must be missing something important with all of this junk. My confused eyes continuously shifts between Aang, the siblings, the carpet, the staff, and the necklaces on the floor. This situation advanced way too quickly for my taste and _completely_ flew waaaaaaaaaaaay over my head. I am not willing to waste my energy on attempting to grasp this situation and dropped the 'airbender's staff' like how I dropped my hostility.

* * *

The Avatar could only watch the situation progressively get worse and instead of taking charge of the situation naturally like his job demands of him, he froze.

His eyes shifts to Katara and Sokka. Both hostile over the bunch of necklaces and the carpet. They are standing side by side and yet both of them have a hand in front of each other, trying to protect the other sibling. Aang have to stress his overwhelmingly panicking mind to quickly understand the situation.

He knows he need to dissolve this discord.

The necklaces must mean something as they are the same as the one Katara wears. Blue with the emblem of the Water Tribe. Maybe they are important relics to the Water Tribe?

_Oooh...I need to step up and ask. I need to dissolve this discord._

He focuses on Sokka, the one who has the boomerang up high, enforcing that he is the one with the upper hand of this situation. Aang looks down at the red and gold carpet below his feet. Other than the colour scheme, there are small emblems of the Fire Nation at the corners of the carpet. Those must have been the switch that made Sokka suddenly aggressive.

_He's just trying to protect his sister but he is jumping to conclusions. I need to dissolve this discord._

Aang looks at Wan. Her posture is not one that has been to battle. She has the standard fighting stance on her legs but she's not putting enough strength in holding her ground. Her stance stance is only good for balance but not for resistance. She was gripping the staff too tightly as well, locking her wrist in place which would be difficult for her to use the staff like it should.

_She's just a normal kid listening to her mother. I need to dissolve this discord._

Aang looks at the staff, the necklace, the carpet, and the entire room.

None of these point this family as a danger but just a house messily filled with collections all around the world. Not just fire, water, and air but earth relics too.

There is no danger here. And there shouldn't be but here they are. A steaming pot of tea threatening to over boil.

He now understands the situation but still doesn't have the conclusion.

Do they try to convince Wan once again to let them leave or stay until the mother returns. The obvious choice would have been the second one since it's the most peaceful and they could always leave later but his mind drifts to Appa. He's been in the woods for a long time now and Aang is starting to get worried. He wants to leave and return to his pet as soon as possible. But there's still that airbender's staff. He wants to know how she got it. He feels like he needs to stay.

His decision is made.

_Monk Gyatso...Am I making the right decisions?_

But he hesitates to execute. He doubted himself because he knows deep in his heart that the only reason he chooses to stay is not because of courtesy to the owners of this house but out of his own selfish curiosity for the staff. If that desire is not here, would his decision be different?

_Am I wrong or am I right?_

"Oh fuck this."-

* * *

Katara's hand hovered over her water skin and the other hand in front of Sokka. Even though Sokka too have one of his hands in front of her that doesn't mean she'll stand back and watch.

Those necklaces are not just any necklaces.

Those are Betrothal Necklaces.

They are carved with great care, precision, and love to be given to the one they would dedicate their life to.

Those are Betrothal Necklaces.

They prove to the women that they are loved and treasured.

Those are Betrothal Necklaces.

They are the beginning of a family.

Those are Betrothal Necklaces.

Like her mother's and her grandmother's.

Those are Betrothal Necklaces.

Like Katara's.

And it's impossible for someone living on this island to have _five._ The life of five's are in that box.

"Oh fuck this."-

* * *

Sokka eyes the troublesome girl in front of him. After the seeing the Fire Nation carpet, all alarms are raised. Currently not wearing his shoes, as all of them have to take them off and set them aside before stepping in further into the house, he wiggles his toes on the carpet.

The carpet is not cheap. Feeling the smooth, comforting texture of the carpet, there's no way people living in these kind houses could possibly own it by just buying it. And by looking at the bunch of necklaces beside Wan's feet, he concludes that her family are thieves. That would only explain why there's so many junk here. Some even look like they would fetch a high price if attempted to be sold.

If this family is not with the Fire Nation, then they must be thieves. Stealing from the world and they are going to be their next victim but Sokka will not let that happen.

They need to leave. _Now._

Sokka's grip on his boomerang tightens when Wan suddenly make a move.

"Oh fuck this."-

* * *

"Oh fuck this. You know what? You want to know more about these _junk, _then you need to wait for my mother to come home because IT'S HER JUNK!" My voice what started as a soft annoyed growl that progressively grows louder and louder as I got angrier and more irritated by the second from this mess of a situation. I gladly emphasize 'junk' because that's what they are to me. Old things that just occupies space and it is getting me into trouble.

"And you!" I point as I glare menacingly at the owner. "Why don't you wave that a little more, huh!? As if chasing me around the market and breaking my door down isn't enough, you want to kill me too!?"

I stride up to the oldest one currently in this entire house and look at him straight in the eyes as I lean my head to the side, baring my neck for an easier kill for the boomerang. "Go ahead."

No one dare to say a thing as if time stood still and yet we still wait for whatever that is going to happen next to happen. Sokka's rage is starting to quell as the tight, shaking grip of his boomerang starts to calm and loosen. The moment he lowers his arm and let the boomerang hang loosely from his fingers is the moment the tension in the air have dissipate.

_But how many times has the tension left only to come back again just a few minutes later?_

No one really knows what to say after that.

Apologize?

Questions?

Demands to leave?

Demands to stay?

More emotional outbursts?

Hearing a tired breath, straining to find the energy to speak after so much have already been stolen from today.

"Sorry..."Sokka strains himself to apologize as if it hurts physically to do so.

"Yeah, sure..." I didn't know how hard it is as well until I had to try it myself. It's like trying to pull out the good food you once chewed, swallowed and digested deep to the inside your stomach back out from your mouth while still trying to make it look like the goodness it once was. I have not said 'sorry' in a long time. If ever. "..Sorry."


	5. Children of The Rock Incident

"Well, I'm back from asking the fruit vendor and-..."

Aisha attempts to initiate a conversation once she starts to push the cupboard from the entrance but once the gap is big enough to look inside, she sees the children asleep on the dining table. Aisha momentarily panics and thinks they are dead but quickly relaxes when she sees all of their slow breathing motion.

Entering the house and pushing the cupboard back to cover the entrance, she takes a look around the house, feeling something is off. It isn't that hard to figure out why. The kids went through her stuff and Wan seemed to have joined them. Everything from the cup board are pushed the side which is the reason why the cupboard felt lighter when Aisha pushed it.

Walking towards the sleeping children, she is dumbfounded how they couldn't have heard her. They must be in a deep sleep due to exhaustion.

Poor kids.

"Where are these kids' parents?"

Aisha will ask them once they have rested. She looks at some of her collection scattered across the dining table. All Water and Air relics. Picking up one of the Air Nomad statues, she sees the commonality between the clothes of the statue and Aang.

Surprise is an understatement of what she feels when she connects the two dots.

These kids definitely need to explain themselves on who they are.

After their rest.

* * *

**BAM!**

"Aaah!" The children collectively scream from the sudden explosion that violates their ears.

"Rest is over." Aisha states as she removes her palm from the table and is not taking any deviance from her proclamation.

Still groggy from the rude awakening, everyone rub their eyes, stretching or yawning to ready themselves for the day. Technically it's still the same day. They just had an afternoon nap.

"Someone mind explaining this?"

Aisha reels back a curtain to reveal a giant brown eye staring into the room.

"Gwah!" The sight causes such a wave of fright that it sends Wan falling backwards off her chair and grunts when she landed.

The others, however, are pleased.

"Appa!" Aang is the first to jump out of his seat and rush to the cupboard. His friends follow enthusiastically and pull the cupboard from the entrance and rushes outside.

Curiously, Wan gets off the floor and rushes out with her mother following hastily.

The sight of such a beast just blows her mind.

"So this...is Appa?" Wan requests for confirmation but there is really no use. Aang, Katara and Sokka are already right next to the...'flying' bison, apparently.

"Yeah! Isn't he amazing!?" Aang enthusiastically asks as he airbends himself to the saddle on it's back.

A union of gasp of awe and wonder when the gathered crowd sees the tiny boy leap into the air. The flying bison is shell-shocking enough but Aang seem to have caused one or two to faint from overdrive.

"Who is that?"

"Who cares about the kid! Look at that beast!"

"That kid just flew! You better care!"

"It's so cool!"

"Momma, I want to fly too!"

"Stay back. it could be dangerous."

The adults stand protectively in front of the children. Some are theirs. Some not. Some children are cowering in fear while others are trying to break through the human barrier to get closer.

"Stunning." Is the respond Wan have chosen for Aang as she stares into the big brown eyes of the beast and it stares back into her smaller, human ones.

"Go on, pat him. He's friendly." Katara laughs as she sees Wan's child-like gaze of awe and how she is kinda leaning forward towards Appa but stays glued to the ground.

Wan turn to her mother eagerly, eyes just begging for her approval and she prays as she hold her eager fist in front of her chest. Her grin is one that is filled with hope that the mother have never seen. Aisha is dumbfounded that her daughter actually have the ability to pull such an expression and eyes Appa before looking at Wan, then to Aang.

"If you break my daughter, I'm going to break you."

Aang laughs nervously and salutes, "Yes, ma'am."

_Like mother, like daughter._

Wan squeals excitedly as she performs a little dance before rushing to Appa. Her smile is agape as her eyes travel all over the bison.

"Now, I know Appa doesn't look like a flying bison right now but trust me, he can fly."Sokka encourages their description of Appa that they have told her before they fell asleep.

Right after the...tension and before they fell asleep, they gathered around the table and dropped the items onto the table. While sipping their tea, stories and explanation were exchanged. Wan felt like she just made some new friends and she loves it.

"Go on, pat him." Katara urges once again and Wan looks over to her nervously. But excitingly.

Wan moves to the of side Appa's face. Her heart is pounding in a whirlwind of emotions that numbed her mind. Unable to think rationally, her heart takes control of her body and lead her curious fingers to Appa's white fur.

But only just the finger tips!

Her fingers only brushes the tickling fur, feeling how soft it is.

Pushing further, her fingers touch flesh.

Before she can take in the joy, she had to flinch backwards from Appa when he had to suddenly shake his head furiously. The crowd expresses their fear by also taking a step back with terrified screams from the children and frightened gasps from the elders. Children that were eager to step forward are frozen still as if trying to hide by pretending to be an inanimate object.

"Whoa whoa! Appaaa!" Aang calls out as he hold onto the saddle tightly, feeling the body shake from the vigorous movement of the head.

Appa soon stops on his own to reveal that his head has gone a little fluffier from the shake. He raises his paw to rub the area where Wan had just touched.

No one made any movements as they warily eye every movement of the bison.

Wan, mirthful grin no longer on her features, focuses her attention to Appa's brown eyes. He is looking at her, as if waiting for her to continue.

Aang look over the saddle and examines Appa.

"I think you just tickled him." Aang offers an explanation. "Try again."

Wan contemplates his offer as she rubs the fingers that made contact with Appa, checking if they are still there and that it iss real and not viciously bitten off so quickly that she didn't notice the pain.

Nervously with quivering fingers, she draws in a shaky breath and she reaches out to Appa once more. Too overwhelmed with fear, she looks away and closes her eyes as she let her hand blindly move forward.

Fur on her finger tips.

Flesh.

Then her entire palm rests on the bison.

Wan remains still before the fear slowly start to fade away as a new emotion takes over. Curiously, she turns and crack open an eye.

Just a crack.

Seeing as there is nothing to be afraid of, she lowers her tense shoulders that have involuntarily risen. Letting go of the breath Wan was holding on to like it would have been her last breath, she looks back into Appa's eyes and can easily see amusement.

_Is the bison laughing at me?_

Wan moves her fingers that are stiff from fear and feel the flesh and fur beneath her hand.

She can't believe that she is touching the bison. An Avatar's bison.

Seeing as Wan iss not going to go any further than this, Appa moves his head to brush against a surprised Wan.

"Wha!...Ah...Aha...Ha ha ha ha ha!" The childlike spark is rekindled and Wan pressed her body against the side of Appa's head, burying her face into the itchy fur.

The adults of the crowd have lowered their guard at the sound of a child's laughter, allowing other curious children to break through the barrier and run straight towards Appa. They showe the same hesitation and Appa remains still, allowing the children to come up to him if they want to.

Aang can only look with a dreamy look on his face as the sound of children laughing are music to his ears.

Katara smiles as the sight of children slowly getting friendly and running around Appa with glee. She even went to help pick a child up and bring him closer to Appa.

Sokka crosses his arms and smirks coolly the best that he can.

"Well, how is it?" Aang asks with a mischievous grin.

"Wonderful! Amazing! This is so cool!" Not even trying to control her excitement, the level of it was as high as the volume she spoke.

"Want to ride him?" Aang asks as he waves an arm to Appa's tail, signaling the way up.

"Y-you mean..fly?"

"Yeah. Don't worry. It's completely safe."

Wan turns to Katara and Sokka for reassurance and they both nod to confirm this fact. She turns to her mother and Aisha didn't raise any objection.

Her nervous frown twitches upward as she jogs to the tail and carefully climb up the tail.

"Oh, my shoes!"

Only when Wan feel the fur in between her toes did she finally notice that in a rush to go outside, she accidentally forgot to wear her shoes.

"Don't worry about it. Just come on up!" Aang assures with a hand stretched out to her although she is quite a way until she would even be in reach.

Not wanting to keep him waiting, she rushes up the tail and clasps her hand with his. Just feeling the warmth from him in the palm of her hands makes her feel stronger. Like the airbender's confidence is flowing into her and washing away any insecurities she has. Any leftover trace of nervousness she had on her face has disappeared as she strengthens her grip.

Aang responds with equal strength and pulls her up. Wan crawls into the saddle and proceed to crawl to the center, refusing to let the dirt-hey wait.

"It's kinda dirty here. Don't you guys wash this?" Wan asks as she lifted up her palm to reveal that it has been covered with dirt.

"Oh..Aha ha ha. I guess I should do that soon." Aang says sheepishly as he walks to Appa's head and grabbed the reigns.

Her eyes wonder to his feet to find that he is wearing shoes. Quickly, she leans over to find Katara warning the children to step back. She is also wearing shoes. So is Sokka.

Even her mother.

_Wonderful. I'm the only one with no shoes._

She decides to take a look inside the saddle. It's not that big so there wasn't much to look at.

Except for that thing over there.

"Aang, what's that?" Wan asks as she points to the animal.

"That's Momo. The newest member of the group."

Wan stares curiously but decide getting friendly with one animal is enough for today. This one looks like he's quick and most likely to bite her.

"Hmm...Where should we go?" Aang wonders out loud and looked at Wan curiously, clearly requesting a suggestion from her.

And she knows the perfect place.

* * *

"You scream pretty loudly."

"I wasn't ready!" Wan snaps back as she snaps the cloth to emphasize her 'truth'.

Truth to be told, no amount of getting 'ready' would be enough for her to not scream at her first flying trip. Wan was fine when Appa hovered from the ground but when he suddenly burst into speed, she completely lost it.

"And I think you did it on purpose." Wan adds as she wipes one half of the saddle with a wet cloth.

"No I didn't!" Aang defends himself.

"You weren't exactly quiet with your evil laugh either."

"I just find great joy with flying on Appa. That's all!"

Aang and Wan have a brief glaring contest but the silly topic ruined the serious atmosphere they are trying to built. In fact, trying to make this serious end up making the both of them laugh at their own silliness. Appa and Momo play in the ocean as Aang and Wan stay on land to wash the saddle. A large tarp is laid on the ground so the bottom part of the saddle wont get dirty.

The two kids wipe the saddle in comfortable silence.

"Hey! It's Wan and the Avatar!"

The sudden disruption to their peace causes them to jump. They turn to find a group of children who must be on their way home from school. It's already late in the evening after all.

Wan could only attempt to raise an eyebrow at what he just said. She didn't remember anyone telling anyone that Aang is the Avatar outside of the four of them. She guess word must have spread when they left her home.

But that's not the most important thing now.

Right now, Wan was just seething at the source of the voice.

_Ming_

That's the stupid earthbender kid.

"But that's just a kid!"

"Who cares. Avatar is the Avatar. Hey Avatar! Think you could teach me some earthbending moves?"

Aang looks at Wan nervously but found she is a little occupied so he had to respond with his own truth.

"Um...Sorry but I don't know any earthbending moves."

The group of children are stunned.

"What!?"

"You don't know!? What kind of Avatar are you?"

Knowing Aang's history, Wan hisses to Aang, "Ignore them. They're just bullies."

But that didn't help Aang's feelings. Saying that they are bullies didn't make what they say any less true. It didn't stop him from bleeding the same pain of failing as an Avatar again and again from his heart.

"Hey, hey! How about _I _teach you some earthbending moves! I'm the best on the island!" Ming-Ming offers arrogantly.

"You're the _only _earthbender on the island, stupid!"Wan retorts as the cloth in her hand starts to leak water from the strong grip of the little girl.

"That's a lie! We know you're an earthbender too! We didn't forget the rock incident!" One of Ming-Mind's friend yells out.

"Why don't you kids just shut up! Nobody cares about that anymore!" An elder male screams from one of the house nearby. His ferocity immediately takes effect at silencing any come backs all of them had planned for the argument.

Wan and Aang remain where they are while the group of bullies walk towards them.

"Stupid kids." Those are the last thing they heard before the man retreata from the window and leave the kids alone.

_Welcome back, Tension, my old friend._

"What's the rock incident?" Aang asks curiously as he stands one step ahead of Wan, sensing that she is not comfortable being close to them.

"That little liar stole my pencil." Ming-Mind states as he points an accusing finger towards her which she scowls darkly in response.

"I didn't-"

"I'm not done, you thief."

"Now, now. One at a time. Wan, let them go first, okay? You can tell me your side of the story once their done, alright?"

Wan looks betrayed by those words. She thought that Aang is on her side but the longer she looked into Aang's pleading eyes, the more she understands how much he wants to settle this dispute peacefully. Even if it means letting her ego be bruised, she agrees.

"Fine." Wan says begrudgingly.

"Heh, looks like she does have some honour after all." The bully's mindless friends laughs along at the stupid joke.

"Can we get back on topic, please?" Aang requests to protect Wan from anymore insults.

"Yeah, sure. Like I said, she stole my pencil. She fell asleep in class and we left for recess, leaving her behind. No one wanted to wake her up anyway. Hmph, I mean, what for? Not like anyone was friends with her."

Wan looks to the ground as she feels the rough truth bruising her ego even more. Only a little but really, she really didn't care that much for her classmates. If they don't want to be friends with her then why would she want to be friends with them? Especially those rock throwers.

"Just a few minutes before recess, I headed back to class like the good student I am. When I was taking out my school supplies like my pencil, I found that it was missing. It was a pencil my father carved like a badgermole for me. I panicked and started asking around for my pencil but everyone had no idea. Then it hit me. Wan wasn't in class and neither was my pencil. It had to be her! So when I went to ask her, she say she didn't have it and had no idea where it went. Oh, but I know a liar when I see one. I head back to class and looked through her stuff and, surprise!-but not really, I found my pencil! I went to confront her about it but she still had the guts to lie. So I did what the great Avatar Kyoshi would. I earthbent the truth out of her. I almost had her where I wanted her! I almost broke her but then when I earthbent a rock at her, she suddenly bent it back to me! I just earthbent to scare her but the rock she bent to me hit me on the head! I was _bleeding_."

And crying.

"And that's that!"

Wan's facial features snaps out of her dark, overshadowing expression and into dismay at how sudden the ending is.

"Okay, Wan. Your turn." Aang signaled.

"Heh, be careful not to fall into her lies."

"Now, now. You had your turn now let her have hers. I mean, honour, right?" Aang attempts to bribe Ming-Ming to being obedient.

"Yeah..Yeah! I have lots of honour!"

Wan can only roll her eyes.

_On what scale? Negative one to zero?_

"Go on, Wan." Aang reassures with a small smile.

She can feel his reassurance calming and encouraging her.

"Okay...I did fall asleep and class but when I found out that it was recess, I quickly left to get some lunch. I did not steal anything. What happened next happened like he said. He trashed through my things and found his dumb pencil that someone else put in there."

Ming-Ming scoffs.

"Then he tried to intimidate me with his earthbending. It was so unfair because I couldn't and can't earthbend! You probably earthbent wrongly because you are stupid. Not like he had any teacher to teach him how to properly earthbend or else he would have some discipline!"

"Wan." Aang warns me as he tries to hold back the bullies from taking another step forward.

She apologizes mentally. Wan is kind of using Aang as an advantage because she knows he wouldn't let them harm her. This is her chance to insult them without any consequences.

_I'll make it up to you somehow, Aang._

"So when he had to be dragged away crying, he started to spread the story. He used his tears to gain pity and because of that, kids started to throw rocks at me as punishment for earthbending a rock at Ming-Ming."

"It's Ming to you."

Ignoring him easily, Wan continues. "After the teacher found out that other children at school were throwing rocks at me, they called all of their parents. The island soon knew about this as the rock incident. I really tried to earthbend the rocks that were thrown at me like I did with Ming-Ming's, but I couldn't. Because I'm not an earthbender."

Aang looks horrified. And a little hurt like he was remembering something. What, the Avatar was bullied too? Doubt it, he's the Avatar! Everyone would line up to spend time with him! The good kind of spending time together. Lucky boy...

"They still throw rocks at me but they try not to hit me anymore. Just close enough to try and scare me into earthbending. It's been almost 1 year now?"

"9 months." Ming-Ming corrects her. Her teeth grinding together in irritation at the irritating noise of his sorry excuse of a voice.

It's not that his voice was annoying or anything. Wan just hates him enough to hate even his voice.

"It sounds like this is something really old? Can't you guys just forget about it?" Aang suggests only to be crushed between two stubborn as a boulder answer.

"No."

It is the first time Ming-Ming and Wan ever agree to something without them wanting to kill each other.

"I am not a thief. And I'm not an earthbender too! Who would want to be put in the same category is.._THAT!_"

"And I'm not going to let this go until I am proven that I'm right!"

The two enemies glare at each other with strong resentment, both leaning forward as neither refuses to back down. Aang had to squeeze himself in between the two and push them apart.

"Okay, since you both wont let this go, we should try to resolve this. As the Avatar, I shall do my best to bring peace but only if the two of you would cooperate with me."

The two earth children break their glaring contest to look at Aang, checking to see if he is seriously serious or is he just joking.

He is completely serious.

Aang focuses his gaze to Wan, silently putting his trust into her that she will support this decision. They're friends, after all. At least to him.

Wan can feel his message imprinting into her mind and slowly leans away from Aang's hand, to show she's not going to pick a fight. But she still believes that this is not gonna solve anything. Ming-Ming is an absolute pig head. Stubborn but the bad kind. He'll only stand up for things that are good for him but not what's good for others.

He's just a bully.

"Okay. Anything you say, Avatar." Wan sighs as she crosses her arms, looking away to the ocean. The only peaceful thing right now is Appa and Momo floating around in the water. Wan sighes again in envy and wishes that this heated argument could be easily washed away by just having some nice, cool water poured all over it.

"Awesome!" Aang concludes as soon as Ming-Ming nods his head reluctantly. "Both of you are willing to let this issue be resolve. That's a first good step."

_Ugh, Aang. Please don't make it sound like we're gonna be best friends after this torment. At most, we'll just ignore each other and stay out of each other's way once this is over._

"Okay. Wan, you go way over there and Ming, you go to the opposite direction. Your friends should stay on the sidelines since the issue only involves you two."

Without saying anything, Wan immediately drops the wet cloth and move to where she is told to go. Anything to get away from that slime ball of swamp mud.

_Oh, I'm just dying to see how well this will end._

* * *

Author's note: Woohoo! Chapter 5! I'm sure you readers who actually managed to read this far have noticed some change in the writing style, ahah. Because it's starting to get a little difficult to write out. And this is why I need to practice more.

Anyway, thank you for reading this far! You guys are amazing!


	6. Bullied Children

Author's note: I tried to use the 3rd point of view but I felt that it was a little hard? So I'm gonna switch back to 1st point of view to compare which would be better to write in.

I would also like some opinions? Like, what would you like to see or don't want to see or some advice? That would be great. :) But I wont guarantee that I'll comply to all of the suggestions if I can't squeeze it in or exclude out.

I would also be glad if someone could offer me some grammar lessons because my grammar had always been my weak point because I don't really know how it's constructed or how to use it properly? I live in a country where English is kind of like the second language for most of my people but I kinda ignored all the other languages and focused on learning English. I'm pretty stupid so I already knew that if I had to focus on more languages than one, I would be screwed. But the English lessons here are not that advanced? I'm not even sure what I learned in school so some advice on how to keep up some proper grammar would be nice! Thank you and thank you again for reading this story!

* * *

_The sun is setting..._

The sight is comforting to me as the ending of the day is almost here. I just need to hold on a little longer.

Plopping myself onto the spot of the earth that I am appointed to, I watch as Ming-Ming move comfortably further away from me.

Thank goodness, I felt like my eyes were gonna burn from how much hatred they were oozing from just staring at him.

His friends went back to the spot where they were before the old man yelled at them and Aang makes his way to me once they are placed.

"So, what do you have in mind, Avatar?" I ask curiously but my mind is already set that whatever he had to offer is useless.

Aang scratches his head with a constipated expression and sits down in front of my agitated form.

"Truth to be told. I'm not really sure what to do now. I mean, Ming already has his pencil and this..incident is already almost a year old."

I sigh.

Just as I expected.

I'm still a little let down though.

The issue is so old and yet no one is willing to let this go. Then again, neither will I. I want revenge. Or, at least, an apology.

"Could, you, possible, apologize?"

"What!?" Anger inside of me erupts too quickly to be controlled. Aang didn't even flinch this time as this is the reaction he expected.

"I mean fake apologize! I know this is difficult because you're clearly the victim here but there's no other way."

"Um, yes there is. Find the real criminal who put that pencil into my bag?" I argue, seething with rage.

"But it's been 9 months. It wont be easy making someone come out and confess after such a long time. Especially after what happened to you. And I got a feeling that if the real criminal was found, he would have stones thrown at him too." Aang reasons but I am not buying it.

"No. I don't care what would happen to him. Heck, I'd throw stones at him too for what he put me through! I'm the one who needs to be begged for forgiveness not the other way around. Especially not that filthy chicken-swine."

"Please, Wan?"

Really, did he really think that it would...

I can only grimace at the astonishing amount of pitiful-ness that Aang has managed to compress into his eyes.

Really, I'm disgusted at myself that I'm actually falling for this. I can't believe it...

The growing amount of pity and guilt just continues to grow the longer I stare into the face that Aang is pulling. I almost lost myself but I quickly turn away, fighting the urge to crumble!

But Aang could sense it. Sense that he is so close to breaking me.

"For me? As a friend?"

_Ah damn it._

"Ugh! Fine! You win!" I growl as I throw my flustered hands into the air. Aang didn't even bother to hide that little fist pump. Or maybe he did try but fail miserably. "But I'm not just gonna go over there. You have to try and convince him to apologize to me too! If I have to fake apologize, so does he."

Brimming with joy, Aang eagerly nods at this agreement with a grin. He quickly gets up from the ground and run towards Ming, allowing me some time to myself.

To accept it and to brace for it.

...

"What!?"

I smirk at the cry of my enemy. It's not often one gets to hear the shrill of a chicken-swine.

Well, at least Aang is keeping his part of the deal. Truth to be told, I am getting tired of the incident and I truly want to put it behind me. I watch as Aang stands up and walk away from an unsatisfied Ming. I wonder what did he do to convince him. Doubt begging would have worked on the prideful Ming.

But it worked on the pitiful me, damn it all.

"Will the two of you please meet back here?" Aang calls out as he stands where they were before splitting up, his hands waving towards us to come over.

Ming and I obey the Avatar, eyes straining to track any funny movement from each other.

Aang looks between the two hopefully before setting his eyes on me, "Would you like to go first?"

I roll my eyes. I really should have been surprised and yet I am not. Forget owing Aang anything for using him as a shield so I could insult Ming. We are even now.

Taking a deep calming breath, I turn my body toward's Ming with my arms crossed in front of me. I refuse to look at that bully in the eye though because I could just feel the smug look spreading across his dumb face. Just sensing it or even thinking about it makes my face red from rage.

"I'm...Sorry."

_You stupid chicken-swine for not having the brains to properly care for your own shit._

"Hmph! And I'm sorry too." Ming tosses out the empty apology casually. It's killing me from the inside that I had to tear my guts open and dig deep inside to find the voice that was trying to hide itself from saying 'Sorry' but this guy could just vomit it out so easily!?

"Are we done, Avatar? I'd like to go home. I've spent enough time with..."

I look up curiously, wondering why he suddenly stopped. I swear internally at how Ming is taller than me but what irritates me more iss the condescending look in his eyes the moment we make eye contact.

"..._her_. After all, not all of us could fit into an educational environment."

Enrage is the perfect description to what I'm expressing through my entire body at his revolting insult. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turn while withholding my expression to face Aang who isn't even looking at me.

"Yeah. Thanks for your time."

Ming smirks and nod 'politely' at Aang then marches toward his friends in prideful stride.

"Take the high road, Wan. Take the high road. I'll owe you something for this. I promise." Aand whispers to me. I continue to glare into his grey eyes.

Slowly but eventually, the rage dies down as my shoulders sag in defeat. I watch at the corner of my eyes as Ming high-fives his friends at his little victory.

"Come on, let's continue cleaning. We'll head back and drink tea or something." Aang offers while offering me back my cloth. I take the cloth grumpily and kneel next to the saddle, doing my best to ignore the cheerful laughter not far behind me.

"You're not drinking tea with us. You're having dinner with us." I grumbles as I roughly wipe the saddle like I'm trying to shove the cloth into the saddle.

Aang smiles at the silent pride he has for his friend and wipes the area of the saddle that he has left off.

"Told you she was pathetic!"

My hand halts its wiping motion as I feel my sanity bending to its limit.

Ming and his loud-mouthed friends didn't even try to shush each other. They just continue laughing. Like they have the right to mock me.

"The high road, Wan. Remember the high road." Aang chants warily and that is the last straw.

I twist my body towards the buffoons as I stand up and I throw the cloth with all of the pent up anger of not only today, but of the 9 months of hell. I react with such inhuman speed that Aang didn't have time to react and by the time he stands up, the cloth have already hit its target.

I was aiming for the head but a soaked back is good too.

Tense silence makes itself at home once again as none of Ming's friend dare to say anything. Their eyes, including Aang's, shifts back and forth towards me, who is panting from emotional exhaustion, and to Ming, who is huffing louder and louder as his rage grow redder and hotter.

_Not as nice if it were you...right, Ming-Ming?_

Of course, I would never say that out loud. I know when I'm pushing it and really, I'm already way past pushing it. This should be considered crashing a buffalo-bull through the button of limited patience. I'm pretty much in big danger now.

"Did you just throw a dirty, wet cloth at me? You filthy scum." Ming growls as he turns to face me, the cloth slowly peeling off from the movement of the bully's ragged breathing.

"Me? You're the one with the dirty cloth stuck onto his back, you filth."

"Wan..!" Aang pleas.

Sorry, Aang but that was too easy to pass up.

"Filth...? _Filth..!?" _

Ming's friends take a step back from their enrage leader. It is kind of pointless since Ming is alreeady stomping his way towards me, further away from them. Each step shakes the ground he walks on and it sends waves of regret and fear to me each time the earth shakes.

But I stand my ground. I'm sick and tired of being the coward. Being pathetic. Holy shit, I'm so fucking scared but I don't want to run away either!

The threat's inevitable approach reminds me when Sokka threatened to attack me with his boomerang.

"We'll see who's filthy when I'm done with you!"

"Go ahead. T-then I'll tell your mom you earthbent at me again." Stuttering as I warn him, I beg for it to work. Yes, that's the best I could do.

Aang stands in front of me and take his battle position, ready to defend but Ming just shifts the ground and knock him off balance. I reach out to catch Aang before he falls to the ground but Ming moves the earth to distance us. He moves me to his left and he moves Aang to the right.

Finally, Ming attacks.

I can only raise my hands in front of me as my only weak defense to the small rock he shoots at me one after another. I grit my teeth as I restrain myself from yelping in pain or even muttering an 'ouch'. My pride has been bruised enough and I'm going to protect the small shreds of what's left of it.

But the rocks aren't a blind aim to my torso as I had thought. It hit the bulls-eye which is my head.

Aang sends a gust of wind that pushes Ming off his feet. Angered, Ming stomps his foot even when his back is still on the ground and lockes Aang's feet in place.

This really didn't make any sense to me until Ming builds a small fort around Aang to keep him in. I can hear him shouting my name, worried. For me.

"Now..Where were we?"

None of his friends tries to help him up and just watches him from behind. They exchange concerned glances with each other, waiting for one of them to find the courage to speak up.

"Please, Ming! You don't have to do this! You have to stop! This is going too far!" Aang pleas, following by the sound of booming fists hitting against his restraints. One of the friend's follows after Aang's plea with his own.

"Um..Ming. I think you should stop. We're gonna get in trouble! Like, actual real trouble!"

The group huddles together as Ming turns to face them. I watch as I rub the sore spot from my head. I take a quick glance to luckily not find any blood before focusing on the rampaging idiot.

"Stop? I haven't even started! I was going easy on her the past 9 months and now? It's time for revenge." Ming turns to face me, giving the most bone-chilling look of calm that I have ever seen from the arrogant loud-mouthed brat. "She owes me blood."

How could a kid say that...?

It wasn't until I feel my heart drop did I realize that I had actually hoped for a good outcome. But it is too late now.

Ming starts to bend rocks at me, one after another, aiming for different parts of my body but I did my best to hold my arms in front of my head. If I can't keep this up, he might just kill me. I dodged, blocked, dodged and blocked while I desperately look for any solution. Any trick. Any lie. But I'm panicking too hard that before my mind could even complete a scheme, it would be rejected every time a stone is shot at me as nothing could fix this mess.

And there's too much shame in begging that I just continue to stumble back after each hit, trying my hardest to contain myself from breaking down to my trembling knees.

One of the rocks hit right in my stomach, knocking the wind out of me so hard that spit flys out of my mouth. My arms fall and allows Ming to seize the opportunity.

He goes after my head.

Aang flies over the wall, managing to escape by sending continuous burst of pressured air through his feet and pounding the earth with his hands so desperately that it finally cracks through and blow off the restraints. He stands in between Ming and I, pushed beyond the limits of his trained patience.

"Stop this! Now!"

Aang waves a current of air towards Ming, forcing the stones he had levitated back to the earth.

"Let's get out of here!"

Ming's friends flee from the scene, not wanting to stay anymore to see the wrath of the Avatar. Ming, however, stubbornly stands still and face Aang. His chest puffed out like he is asking for the Avatar to give him his best shot.

"This is bullying and there is never a good enough reason to bully anyone! You must find it in yourself to let it go! No good ever comes from vengeance."

I breath shallow breathes as I slowly lower my arms to my side. I watch Aang from behind as he gives his speech, slowly feeling myself at peace the longer I stare at his back, defending me. For once, someone is on my side when things get tough.

Even though it is my fault.

Still, it's..._nice._

"Is getting revenge really that important!? You're putting a life in danger over a pencil! How could you justify throwing rocks at anyone?"

My eyes shifts to the ground. Although it isn't directed at me, it is pointing out a flaw in me. And I don't like to look at my flaws. That bully's flaw is complete thick-headedness. I don't think Aang's speech would do any good but I didn't want to stop him.

"You know what? I'm done stroking your ego! I thought some part of you wanted to be good and make peace! But I was wrong!"

I thought I saw something shifting at the corner of my eyes. Without moving my head too much, I witness spots of black on the earth slowly rising higher and higher as my realization grow more and more apparent in my eyes. Slowly, I edge my head towards the source of the shadows to confirm my suspicion.

"You should be ashamed for what you are doing but you can still be good! Just walk away."

All the rocks that I have dodged and landed behind me start to rise. I'm paralyzed with fear as I watch the stones hover at a distance behind me. It almost feels like I can feel them staring back at me in hatred.

Then they shoot themselves.

I duck and brace myself but instead I feel the stones whizzing past me as they miss. And it continues to fly. I snap my eyes open search for the rocks.

What I saw causes me great horror that I have never imagined I would ever feel.

"_NO!"_

Hearing my cry, Aang pauses his speech to turn around. He expects to see me but instead, he sees a rock stopping just in front of his right eye.

He freezes as he stare at the rock, thinking his sense of time has twisted itself to make this second last as long as a minute. He just waited and waited for it to continue and finish the job but it remains where it is in the air.

His eyes focus behind the stone to see my hands stretching out in front of me. My fingers digging into my palm as if I am clutching onto something for dear life. And I think I am. I feel the stones in my hands even though there's no way my hand could physically hold all of them. They are also floating so far away from me and far too close to Aang.

_The stones could have blinded him...They could have blinded my first friend and it would be all my fault..._

Ming, Aang, and I watch the stones in silence, feeling like the still earth itself.

The moment the stones start to tremble, so did our blank minds as it struggles to comprehend what just happened.

"Shit...Shit! Shit!"

Ming runs away the same time as the stones fall to the ground.

I gaze at the rocks in deep confusion. What I feel that are rocks in my hands have suddenly started to melt away. It flows out of my tight, trembling grip so easily like air. Aang steps away from the rocks, slightly afraid that they would suddenly rise from the ground to finish the accident.

Aang recovers from the shock first. His eyelids flutter to comfort the burn he is feeling in his eyes for not blinking too long. A hand rubs his face to loosen the tense muscle as he takes a deep breath in.

Hold.

Breath out.

Gaining composure, Aang waits for me to do the same but grows worried when I did nothing but tremble.

"Wan?"

I just keep staring at the stones. Trying to understand what I just did. Or maybe thought I did.

"Wan?" Aang calls a little louder.

I snap my head up to look at the source of the voice. I didn't say anything as I watch Aang take some cautious steps toward me. Like I am a frightened animal.

And I am.

Aang puts his hands on my shoulders. Although he hardly put any weight on it, I feel it pushing my shoulders down and forcing me to relax.

"Are you okay?"

A simple question with difficult steps to find the answer.

Okay? No. What happened was not okay. I think I potentially lost a friend because _I _was thick-headed..._  
_

I'm horrible? I can't say that. True it may be but it's my fault. And I selfishly let it happen because I took advantage of Aang's position of power as the Avatar.

Angry? Again?

Sad?

Petrified?

Guilty?

Overwhelmed?

The more I try to find the appropriate answer, the heavier my heart feels.

"Aang..."

Just saying the name of the airbender makes me feel a little lighter. Or maybe I am feeling lighter because I actually have someone to share my burdens with.

"...What am I?"

Sorry, Aang. Looks like I do owe you.

"Well...An earthbender, it seems?" Aang offers but I shake my head.

"I tried, Aang. Trust me."

"But you just-"

"Trust me." I repeat forcefully. "I just know it. I just _feel _it. I'm not an earthbender."

Aang takes a moment of silence to think.

"Then...what are you? What do you feel?"

A difficult question with an easy answer.

"I don't know."

Aang drops his hands from my shoulders as we both just...stand there. Eyes looking at anything other than each other.

"...And you?" I ask. It is out of politeness at first but then I notice how he looks kind of in pain.

"Huh?" Aang questions my question.

"Are you okay? You look kind of in pain." I respond and as soon as he hears it, he moves one of his hands to his face.

"Do I?"

Aang's focus seem to have run to the back of his mind and I wait patiently for it to come back.

He isn't willing to share his problems at first but then he remembers how the girl in front of him feels like home. Slowly but gradually, he feels that he could trust her in something as small as just expressing what's bothering him.

Aang looks at me in the eyes and I tilt my head in curiosity. Signaling my eagerness to listen.

"Well...I'm just a little disappointed in myself. I'm the Avatar that's suppose to bring balance into the world. But I couldn't even put a stop to..a simple fight. I'm worried...If I could do it at all."

Oh, wow. This is way over my head.

I didn't know what to say at first but when I see how low his shoulders are from carrying a heavy burden for so long and how old his eyes look for a 12 year old...I know I can't let him down. Not after what he has done for me.

"Well, this is different from the world. This was two thick-headed children fighting over something small and stupid. We were fighting like children. The people who you will soon have to face are nothing like Ming. The people who...would be on your side wouldn't be like Ming. They wont be bratty, ignorant, or thick-headed like Ming. They'll listen to you properly and they'll listen to rationality instead of their pride." Struggling as I try to answer the best I can, my hands are all over the place trying to exaggerate the point in my advise.

"Like you?"

I involuntarily snort, thinking it is a joke, and shake my head.

"Nah. People better than me." I answer with a confident grin.

Aang seems to relax a little. It didn't completely solve the worry in his mind but it did weaken. Pushing it to the back of his mind to ponder about later, he looks around as he have this nagging feeling that something is missing for a while now.

"Hey...Where's Appa and Momo?" Aang asks as he suddenly realizes he hasn't heard from his friend throughout the whole fight. He trusts that his pet would have come to his rescue but he was missing throughout the whole action.

My eyes scans around if Appa is on land while Aang scans the ocean.

"Oh, there he is." Aang points out and I turn to face the direction he is pointing.

At first it is kind of difficult since he is pointing right at the setting sun but soon we notice a blob of a silhouette floating in the ocean.

"What are they doing way over there?" I ask as I take a few steps forward, as if it would help.

"I'll go check."

Aang leaves my side as he goes to the saddle and pick up a staff. Or as he calls it, 'A glider'. Opening up the wings of the glider, he airbends himself to the air and glide towards the sun.

Calmly, I watch as Aang's silhouette grow smaller and smaller. I breath in the ocean air blowing away all the leftover pieces of anger inside of me, allowing me to forget the bitter part of today.

Aang makes a circles before he drops himself onto Appa's stomach.

I flinch at the distant roar of surprise as Appa rolls off his back, managing to cause several splashes due to his multiple limbs. Aang leaps high into the air to avoid his pet's turnover, laughing at the reaction he has received. If I strain my ears, I swear I hear Momo screeching as well.

The humorous sight causes me to giggle.

After some shuffling about, I couldn't really tell because they're too far and it's hard to see when they are nothing but dark figures, Appa fly's out of the water and heads my way.

My giggled erupts to a hearty laughter.

Appa looks ridiculous soaking wet like that! It looks like he can't see at all! And Momo is clutching tightly onto Aang's head, dripping water uncomfortably down Aang's clothes. I can even see the trail of water on Aang's clothes that Momo have left behind while crawling up to Aang's head.

Soon my laughter infects Aang and he soon joins the merry laughing. We laugh and laugh no longer just because of the funny sight but because it just feels good to laugh.

Once we feel like we have enjoyed enough to balance out the rough parts of today, we slowly quiet down but some of the joy fades away with it. For me, that is.

"Hey, Aang." I call out while eyeing the ground.

"Yeah?" Aang asks curiously as he slides off Appa and walk up to me. Momo have finally left the bald kid's head alone and sits alone to dry himself off.

"...Are we...still friends?"

The boy is startled by the question and notices how I roll my hands into a tight fist. I'm bracing myself for the worse.

"Of course! Why would we suddenly stop being friends?"

I silently look at the rocks laying innocently on the ground and hope Aang got the message.

"Oh...Well, it's not your fault-"

I face him with a bemused expression, pretty much calling him out. Aang is stunned that his kindness is denied but it is a bad kind of kindness that ignores all of the bad things instead of fixing them.

"Okay, it was but that doesn't mean we just stop being friends. Being friends mean sticking to each other no matter what! Even if they were going through a tough time, make mistakes, or was just...different."

I pretend to raise an eyebrow at the last part. It didn't kinda fit in but..okay? The way he says it as he looks to the ground makes me feel like I shouldn't question it.

Aang walks to my side and rest an arm on my shoulders. He is only a little bit taller than me. I notice that my forehead i just a little above his nose. I guess I was the cause of his nosebleed when we collided. I was wondering why he was bleeding.

"Friends?" Aang offers with a light smile.

"Friends." I accept as I too put an arm over his shoulder.

"...I'm surprised that you're not bleeding or anything from those rocks."

"Yeah. I'm pretty durable. And strong too!"

Appa sensing that the conversation has reach its end, he shakes his body vigorously to dry himself.

"Agh!"

"Damn it, Appa-Ahck! Ew! Aang, I think I just swallowed some of Appa's fur!"

DISGUSTING.


	7. Children of Reconnection

"You're leaving tomorrow...?"

"Yup. Leaving tomorrow, first thing in the morning." Sokka replies nonchalantly before shoving more rice into his mouth.

I stare at him dejectedly, praying that he would change his mind and they would just stay for one more day. But since his food is clearly more important than my selfish feelings, I shifts my silent begging to the others sitting around the table.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality. And sorry about your door. Again." Katara says to my mother who is sitting across from her.

"Oh, don't worry about that now. Thanks to Sokka, my door is _almost_ the way it was before it broke down."

The limelight shines onto the door as it becomes the interest of everyone in the house.

For some odd reason, there's a missing chunk of wood around the bottom half of the door. According to my mother, Sokka was gonna put new hinges on the door but found out too late after one strike of his boomerang that he was on the wrong side of the door.

I don't even know why Sokka used his boomerang.

Why does he like that boomerang so much?

I swear, that thing is the answers to all of his problems even when it's not!

I swear, again, that if he uses his damn boomerang for something on this dinner table, it's flying out the window.

Everyone return to eating their dinner. I look around again to find that I'm the only one feeling down with the three of them leaving tomorrow.

They're gonna leave me. My only friends.

* * *

"Here. I want you guys to have this."

I pass them a small sack.

Katara takes it from me with both of her hands before opening it up.

"Marbles!" Katara exclaim in surprise.

She picks up one of the marbles and hold it up in front one of her eyes. She closes the other eye to have a better focus of the reflected moonlight on the marble. Inside the marble are three swirls of different colours connected from one end of the marble to the other.

Sokka and Aang looks into the sack to see the marbles for themselves. Sokka, satisfies that there is nothing weird in there, lay down on his mattress that he is sharing with Aang.

"Wow! That's a lot of marbles!" Aang exclaims in wonder as he takes a few marbles to look into them one by one, seeing the different colour combos and different rate of swirls inside the marbles. "Why do you have so many?"

I grin sheepishly as I scratch the side of my neck with a finger. "I kind of collect them. I thought they were pretty so I collect them when I could."

"So that's why you have a lot of junk." Sokka points out without needing to look around my room.

Okay, first of all, these are not 'junk'.

...

Okay, maybe SOME of them are.

This is kind of hypocritical of me since I call my mother's stuff junk as well but at least my junk stays in my room. Hers is everywhere! Except for my room because I pushed it out to make room for mine.

I didn't have as much junk as Sokka said. It was just...scattered around to make it look like there's a lot of them. We had to move it to the corners of the room to make room for the mattresses. One big one for Sokka and Aang to share that is the spare mattress my parents use when the other mattress needs cleaning. Katara is using a smaller one that is the spare mattress of mine. My bed had to be moved to the wall, right under the window, so the big mattress could fit in. Katara's mattress is next to the foot of my bed.

They were supposed to sleep in the living room, just outside the door so they could leave quicker. I pretty much begged them to sleep in the same room as me to have something like a sleepover. I convinced my mother by whining how the other girls at school get sleepovers.

Although there were no boys but there's no reason for me to say that part.

Then again, my mother would probably already knew that with some common sense.

Oh well, either way, she agreed since they'll be leaving the first thing tomorrow anyway.

And that's why I need them in my room. So when they wake up, I would have been woken up too. I can't just bear the thought of waking up to find them already long gone. Just thinking about it makes my heart cry from the ache.

Sadly, even after all that begging and effort, my heart is still aching.

"Well, good night, everyone!" Sokka announce before turning to his side, getting comfy before closing his eyes.

"Night, Sokka. Night, you two!" Katara shares her good night as she set the bag of marbles down before going to sleep.

"Night, Sokka! Night, Katara!, Night, Wan!" Aang says as he puts the bunch of marbles he took back into the bag. I thought he was going to lay down until he got up and head towards my bed. "Sorry." He apologizes as he climbs up and crawls his way to the window. "Night, Appa! Night, Momo!"

Appa and Momo answeres with their respective animals noises before settling next to our reindeer-alpaca to sleep.

I don't think the reindeer-alpaca look too good. I think he might be even loosing some fur from fright at the sight of Appa. Poor thing. I should give him something good to eat tomorrow to make him feel better.

"Night, Aang." I say as he gpes back to his mattress. He turns to me and respond with a nod and a single wave of his hand. "Night, Katara. Night, Sokka." Er... "Night, Appa. Night, Momo."

Katara quickly rises from her bed and says a little loudly so she would be heard, "Night, Momo! Night, Appa!"

Sokka shoot up from his bed, scaring Aang and forcing him to roll away from the upright male. Irritated, he hisses, "Why can't you people say good night like normal people and just say 'Everyone'!? Like I did!"

"Good night, Everyone!" Sokka exemplifies with an exaggerated wave towards everyone and a faux grin.

"It's more special this way." Aang reasons but Sokka is having none of that.

Sokka swing his hands into the air, tossing the issue over his shoulders and just fall backwards onto the mattress.

Finally, everyone could sleep.

Except me.

* * *

It's been hours. And no matter how long I close my eyes, the sound of my heart crying is too loud to give me some peace.

All I could do is stare outside my window, watching the stars decorating the sky with their natural beauty. Some are brighter, some aren't. But they're the same to me and all of them are equally pretty.

I let out a tired sigh.

Not only I can't sleep but I won't sleep either. I feel that the moment I close my eyes, I would be wasting time appreciating this 'sleepover'.

I let out a frustrated sigh.

I wonder what my life is gonna be like once they're gone. I especially wonder how Ming is gonna treat me then when the Avatar is no longer by my side to...'help' me. I'm probably just gonna go back to school and be alone then walk home alone and be home with my mother and maybe my father when he gets home.

...

Then what?

I let out a sad sigh.

"Wan?"

I hear a whisper calling my name, snapping me out of my thoughts.

It's Aang.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" I whisper back.

Aand shakes his head but I can see from his eyes as he is rubbing them that he has woken up because of me.

Great.

"Sorry." I repeat.

He shakes his head again as he waves his hand while pushing himself up with his other hand. I sit up in my bed as I watch him move closer. Once he is by my bedside, he sit down on both his knees and lay both his arms on the mattress with his tired head resting on them.

"What's wrong?"

I look sadly at him. He looks so tired. I don't understand why he would care so much for me that he would sacrifice sleep. Especially when he needs in the morning to...leave.

...Maybe he's doing this because I'm his friend?

I'm his friend, right?

Right.

I'm his friend. And friends are suppose to care for each other. Like this.

I'm going to miss this.

"...I don't want you to leave." Wait, let me rephrase that. That sounded too weird. "I don't want any of you to leave."

"Oh..." Aang's eyes downcast at my words, making me feel guilty for burdening him with my selfish wish. He remains silent as he tries to think of the right words to say. "Why? It can't be that bad? I mean, we'll be back to visit one day."

"But when is 'one day'? I don't want you guys to leave for there to be even a 'one day'. I need you guys...Like, I _really _need you. You guys are my first friends."

"Nah, I'm sure you've had friends before."

"I..Well..."

Truth to be told. Yes, I did have friends before but after the rock incident, bad things just started to happen and they left me in fear of bad things happening to them too.

"Not like you! You actually stayed by my side when things get bad. Even when it's kinda my fault."

Aang just gives me a look when I said, 'kinda'. I'm not gonna correct myself.

"Sokka and Katara stayed with my mother to fix the door that they...er, actually, _we _broke. Before you guys, no one stayed by my side when things get tough. When other kids break something, they always run away, leaving a mess behind. Even I did. No one here is like you guys. I'll never meet someone like you again. I can't just...let go... You're my first friends. Like...possibly my first _real _friends..."

I feel vulnerable spilling my heart out like this. All this overwhelming emotions are overworking my already tired heart. Tears start to leak out of my eyes but I quickly wipe them away with my sleeves. This conversation of just..a small thing. Why would it make me cry like this? It's...a stupid thing to cry over...

No. Wait. I take that back. Crying for my friends is not a stupid thing. But crying this easily, is stupid.

I opened my mouth to spill the last drop my heart has to offer but my nose is clogged with snot. I don't have a cloth nearby so I had to suck it in.

Sorry, Aang, but I really need to suck it in because I need to say this so how you look at me right now is not that important.

"Please don't leave me..."

"Wan..."Aang breathes out as he stare sadly into my teary eyes. "I'm sorry..."

I clench my fist beneath my blanket and grit my teeth as I wipe away more tears from my eyes.

Aang looks down in guilt. That was enough and he didn't need to see more. He couldn't help me solve my issues with the bully and now they're gonna leave while I'm left behind in tears.

But really...It's not like they owe me or anything that would cause them to take me along with their journey.

Because, seriously? The north pole? That's...way too far.

"Hey." Aang calls out to me softly.

My shoulders are shuddering as I try to hold in my sobs that threatens to break out. I'm in a pitiful state right now and I don't need Katara and/or Sokka to see me like this. Aang is enough, thank you.

Wiping my eyes to clear it up, I look back at Aang. I silently waiting for him to continue as I watch him have an internal battle.

"How would you like to come with us?"

The impact of the question just shocks all emotions from my body. I suddenly feel so numb that not even my mind could process this.

"What?" I blurt out in my stupor.

"Would you like to come with us? I mean, I did say I owe you."

When!?

...Oh yeah. That time when he asked me to fake apologize. But I don't think that counts because it didn't work in the end.

"Aang..."

Once my emotions and senses return to me, I...I don't even need to think for an answer. It is so obvious what it is.

"...I can't."

* * *

I look out my window to watch them leave. We already said our goodbyes so my mother and I stayed in the house while Aang, Katara and Sokka pack all their stuff onto Appa properly for a long flight. They're a little further from my house so no accidents would happen.

The more things they toss into the saddle, the more I feel like they're tossing a piece of me into the saddle too.

And I'm not talking about the marbles.

I've never felt so empty.

No.

That's not it.

I had always felt empty. I felt empty for a long time. It was only when they came into my life, did I realize how dead I was and what it was like to be alive. To be living and breathing like it actually matters.

Now I'm seeing all of it being taken away.

But should it really be called 'taken away' when I had refused to try to take it back?

Aang tried to reason with me. Tried to convince me to come.

But I kept saying 'no'.

What about my mother?

What about my father who's not even in the house?

What about my good bye to him?

What about my life?

Or even my future when I come back?

When will I come back?

Wouldn't I just be left behind again?

Left behind in this normal life while everyone else has gotten an education by the time I return and went sailing to catch fishes or getting dirty in the farm to plant crops?

Left behind in trying to catch up with my old, dull life while my friends...leave? Again?

What's the point?

And...all the way to the north pole.

It's...It's too far. I'm too scared to go so far away from home alone. Sure, I would have my friends but...to be away from home for so long. How could I even do that? I'm just a kid. I can't do that...

All the doubts and questions just keep coming in, piling one after another on top of each other and refuses to leave. I didn't know time had passed so quickly that I didn't notice Aang waving good bye to me.

"Wan!" I snap my head up from it's hung position to look up.

"Bye bye!" Aang called for my attention to make sure I get his good bye.

And off they went.

And there goes my heart, finally breaking after a long night of cracking little by little.

I felt what being dead is like but not what dying is like.

My mind just...starts to scream. Nothing else matters. Not even sanity. It shows in my eyes as I can feel it freezing in place while it is wide open. Like the scream in my head are bulging my eyes out.

I couldn't breath, the energy that is supposed to keep my throat open has sunk into despair and refuses to resurface. It is like vengeance for not saying what I had wanted to say from the bottom of my heart but choked up instead. I didn't even notice it until now.

The sound of wood cracking didn't even register my mind. The screaming blocks it out well. My hands grip my window's sill so tightly. I am too numb to feel it.

No.

I can feel my body just fine. I can feel it trembling in panic.

My grip is too tight and my window sill is cracking.

The energy that has sunk from my throat have focused itself in my legs. It starts twitching.

I feel my heart break open, revealing two offers to me.

Obey or Calling.

Obey my fears or listen to the Calling of my wishes.

Once again, this decision. I already know the answer to this because I have answered this question before.

I bolt out of my window.

"Wan!"

I can hear my mother calling me. She must have seen me running away.

But I just keep running with new found energy. Every weight that was pulling me down to drown in my own tears have lifted. Only just a little to mercifully allow me to run.

"Wait..."I breathe out.

Appa is flying further away. He is flying away too quickly. At this rate, I won't be able to reach them. I need to get on higher ground. As close to them as possible.

_My heart is breaking._

"Where do you think you're going!? Get back here!"

"No...No!" I yell as I push past people that are giving me weird and annoyed looks but I didn't care. Not like I could see them from my back anyway.

There is a cliff nearby but I need to leave the village to get there.

I run through the market street and headed for my destination. My eyes shifting between the path so I could see where I'm going and back at the sky to Appa. They're getting further.

"WAIT!" I don't care anymore. I need them back. "I CHANGED MY MIND!"

They can't hear me.

_My heart is being torn open._

I need to run faster. I need to be faster.

"Wan! You're being reckless!" My mother's voice sounds so faint like she's so far away. No, she is.

The wind whistles faintly into my ears as I run with speed that I had never ran with before. It is the speed of true desperation.

"COME BACK!"

I slide on my knees to leave the village through the fence. I scowl as the forest's trees blocks my view. I need to get out of here as quick as possible. I use the trees to steer myself around them with the use of my hands. I didn't care if I get splinters because of the force of speed I am going. I'm durable but I don't think I'm that durable. I can feel the palm of my hands burning like my throat. I'm not even sure if they would come back to my line of sight once I leave this forest.

_Then I felt it. Deep in my heart._

But I need to trust my instincts.

_The pull._

Then I break through the forest.

Appa is further away than before when I entered the forest. But I can't give up hope. Not like this. I can't let it end like this. I refuse!

"TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

I continue running.

"I'LL FOLLOW YOU!"

I feel the earth's angle rising.

"SO PLEASE!"

I reach the edge of the cliff.

"DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!" I scream with all the strength of my lungs desperately, weary from the sudden exertion of energy of the chase.

I stand there panting...

...as I watch Appa fly further away.

The large hope I had, the largest to date, fell deeply to the bottom of my soul as I fall onto my knees from the weight of it.

I could feel my heart's hard beating slow down. Like I'm dying.

I hang my head, refusing to look at the retreating form of my friends. That I had left behind first.

I said 'No' first.

And I'm such...an idiot.

I barely heard the sound of grass crunching behind me from a distance through my loud sobbing. The foot steps stop just a few steps behind me. I didn't even bother to turn around as there is no point in doing so. My vision is too blurred with the tears just..._pouring_ out of my eyes. I just keep wiping and wiping with the sleeves that had to be wet again with yesterday night's tears and snot.

I hardly react when my mother holds my shoulders. My entire body is tingling. I don't know the reason but whatever it is, it's making it hard to feel. I could hardly feel my mother pulling me into a hug.

"Come on, let's go. I'll make you your favourite soup, okay? They'll be back, I'm sure of it, one day."

_But I don't want 'one day'. I want 'everyday'._

I couldn't reply. My jaw is already strained from trying to keep my mouth close to reduce the sobbing. And to prevent myself from screaming in regret.

My mother gets up from the ground, and gently pulling me up with her. She had plans to give me a big scolding but that can be hold off for later.

Shakily, I get myself off the ground.

I couldn't even stand straight. I still can't see.

I just hold onto my mother's comforting hand as she leads me away from the cliff's edge and back to the village.

**Thud...**

My body freezes from the familiar sound. So did my mother.

I only heard it once, but it was scarred into me to forget it so easily.

And that brush of wind.

"Wan?"

Slowly, I turn, like if I were to swerve around too quickly, I would accidentally shake away this miracle.

There they are.

All right in front of me again.

This simple sight have become the most beautiful scene I have ever seen.

Aang gets off Appa and land in front of the bison. Sokka and Katara looks over the saddle in curiosity and concern.

"You came back." I breathe out between sobs as I let more tears flow. This time, I let it show. I'm proud to be able to be this happy.

"Yeah..I just kinda.."

"Felt...

"...A pull?"

"...Yeah. A pull."

Sokka and Katara look pretty confused and turn to each other for answers that neither of them have.

I continue to stare at Aang. Almost afraid that any second now, I would wake up and this would be a dream. A single blink, and they're gone.

But...something about him just feels so welcoming. Welcoming me back after being away for so long. I have no idea why but it feels almost surreal.

I let go of my mother' hand to run towards Aang and wrap my arms around him tightly.

Into the welcoming arms of home.

Everyone else, on the other hand, seem to be having a de ja vu.

"Wan...you're kinda crushing me..."

"Sorry."

* * *

Author's note: Wow, that was really cheesy. Like, super cheesy. Ah well. It was still important though.

Yup, there's more to this mushy feelings that just some sad way of showing 'love at first sight'. It's not really love at first sight at all but I'm pretty sure it's being taken in as that.

Anyway, one more chapter before I jump into the plot line of the Avatar series. Finally.

It would start pretty linear at the beginning but I'm already having plans for the later parts.

Ahahah, but by then, I wonder how many would still be reading this.

Ah well, I'm just here to have fun.

And I hope you readers are having fun too! If not from this fic, then I hope you find fun in another fic or in any other way in your life! :)

Have a good day, Readers.

Bye bye!


	8. Children of Kyoshi Island

"How's your pants, Sokka?" Aang inquirs through the bathroom door that Sokka is currently behind.

"Not good...The hole is too big." Sokka responds. "Dumb door..."

While walking back into the house, Sokka was the last to come in so he's the one to close the door behind him. He seemed to have forgotten the damage he did to the door before because the damaged area snagged the back of his pants. While Sokka closed the door and walked deeper into the house, the door ripped his pants.

He's currently changing to a new set of pants.

Which belongs to my father. My father's build is big with a belly and buff with muscles.

"That should be everything!" My mother announces as she gestures to the bags in front of me. There are two bags. One bag has clothes, soap, some food, money...The everyday necessities. The other bag has a sleeping bag, materials for a tent, a rolled up net, and a fishing pole that actually belonged to my father.

He has other fishing poles so it would be fine.

"Are you sure you're okay with your daughter travelling with us? I mean, it's not like I don't want you to come along, Wan but...It's going to be a while before we actually come back here." Katara asks concernedly.

Sokka come out of the bathroom, wearing big, green pants that is held up with a rope that acted as a belt. He prays that no one would point out the obvious bagginess and laugh at him for looking quite ridiculous at the pants that were three times too big for him, and for once, the universe showed mercy.

"Oh, of course I'm fine with it! In fact, if she had rejected this great opportunity of an adventure, I'd worry if she was actually my daughter at all!"

Ouch, that hurts, mother.

My mother proceeds to laugh at her own teasing joke.

I remain bemuse while everyone else laugh politely as they exchange glances, wondering if any of them actually found some amusement from the joke.

Nope.

"Come on, we have to go before we waste anymore day time." Sokka signals everyone to start leaving.

This is it. This is going to be the start of my adventure.

We say our good byes to my mother as we head towards Appa.

"Bring back some souvenirs, Wan! We can put them with my other collections!"

I look over my shoulder and watch my mother wave me goodbye with...so much pride.

Is she...really that proud of me?

I could be mistaking it for joy that I'm finally leaving here and won't be causing her anymore trouble but...The look in her eyes when she looks straight at me and nothing else.

It is a look I have never seen before.

It makes my heart ache with both sadness and joy.

I nod to my mother and wave a signal that I got her message.

Turning back to Appa, Aang notices from beside me that my eyes are watering.

"Are you sure you want to leave, Wan? You can turn back now if you want." Aang offers as we start to climb onto Appa.

"N-no, no. It's not that." I drop my things onto the saddle and position myself comfortably once I sat down. "It's just that..."

I turn to my mother again.

She had taken a few step ahead from where she was. Like she was about to go after me.

My voice broke at the sight. "I'm going to miss my mommy..."

Katara gives me a comforting hug and I lean into it as tears start to flow from my already swollen eyes and down my cheeks, red from the rough rubbing from the sleeves of my previous shirt. I had to change into a new shirt since I refused to start my journey with a dirty shirt.

"B-besides...I wanna learn earthbending. If I'm really am an Earthbender, then maybe when I come home, I won't be such a bother anymore."

"Oh nonsense, Wan. You're not a bother! You were just caught in a bad situation that wasn't your fault." Katara insists as she continues to hold onto me.

Hugs are really nice. I should really do this a lot.

I clench my empty hands, suddenly missing the warmth from my mother's rough hands. Maybe holding hands are good too. These two actions are...very important.

"Hold on, everyone! We're taking off!" Aang alerts us before focusing on Appa. "Appa, yip yip!"

I feel the same sensation of being lifted from the constantly stable ground and into the ever changeable air. My eyes never leaving my mother as she jogs a little closer.

"If you meet any pirates, tell them you're my child. They'll be nice once they know!"

What?

"What?"

If I weren't so choked up right know, I would have asked the same question. My mother just gives us an all-knowing smile before heading back into the house.

* * *

Katara is busy sewing the rip in Sokka's pants while Sokka and I watch with little to no interest.

but it's kind of the only interesting thing right now.

I got tired of staring at the ocean after a few minutes.

"So...What did Aisha mean about pirates?" Sokka initiates a conversation.

"Dunno. First time I heard about it." I end the conversation.

Katara suddenly looks irritated and stares at the area that she had recently pierced with the sewing needle. She reaches for a pair of scissors to cut that string off. Must have made a mistake.

"So..." I initiates a conversation in a much lower volume. "Aang really is the last airbender."

"Yup. I'm sure you've heard the stories." Sokka ends the conversation.

I remember when Katara had to explain to me what they had found at the Southern Air Temple. It wasn't even a long, dramatic, or detailed explanation. It was so short, I could still remember every word of it. Even now.

_"He found out about the genocide."_

When I heard that one sentence, I flinched. None of us said a thing for a whole minute. Sokka saved the day by leading the conversation onto something else, which were the artifacts that had been scattered all over my dining table.

I never really gave much thought to how Aang felt. I only knew that it hurts.

But after I had to say good bye to my mother, just one person, I wonder how he had felt when he learned about...the genocide. It must be what I felt a million times over. One for each Air Nomad. Probably that much.

My mind drifts to the memory where I had felt a strong wave of rage and all I could see were skeletons. I also never told them about this. Really, how on earth am I gonna explain that I glow and see things that may or may not have anything to do with what they saw at the Air Temple.

Plus, I'm worried how they would react if I happened to glow again. Would they try to get rid of me? Or maybe accidentally like my parents did.

...Now that I think back with a calm mind, I feel...a little bad for how I reacted. I was angry and I lost my temper.

I sigh.

I even hurt them emotionally on purpose. I should have apologized before I left. Now I just have to wait until I get home.

Wow, it's not even a day yet and I already have something to do once I get home.

While I'm busy swimming in my thoughts, Sokka pulls out his map.

"So...Where are we heading?" I ask as I glance the map. All I understand from what I'm seeing is land and water. No idea where we are currently.

"Aang says he wants to find an elephant koi. Not sure where. Wherever it is, we better find some food there. I'm getting hungry."

Sokka focus on the map intensely. I didn't say anything else to him because he looks like he needs his space. I wonder if he's the only here who can read the map.

I get off my butt and onto my knees before crawling to Katara's side. I eye her steady hands as she sew the tear close then I look at her. Focusing intensely just like her brother.

"So...How's the sewing?"

"Great." Katara answers nonchalantly without breaking focus.

I should...also leave her alone.

I move away cautiously like if I were to move too suddenly, I would break her concentration. I sit right in between Sokka and Katara with equal distance, bored out of my mind.

What a wonderful adventure.

I'm just gonna take a nap.

* * *

"...Could someone please tell me how we suddenly end up here?"

This is the RUDEST wake up call, ever. I think someone just woke me up by hitting my shoulder with a stick thing!

"And why can't I see?"

"Silence, little girl. If you and your friends answer our questions, we'll be nice." A young woman voices out. It is in a calm but strict tone.

"We won't just-"

Sokka argues but is cut off.

"Okay."

"Wan!"

By me.

"What!? They said they'll be nice!" I yell at the voice that is coming a little further away from my left.

"Ow! Wan! I'm right here!" Aang complaines at my left.

"Oops, sorry."

"Quiet. If I learn that you are stalling for time, I'll feed you to the unagi."

"What's an unagi?" I asks but it is completely overpowered by the volume of Sokka's forceful demand.

"It doesn't matter! Right now you guys are threatening us while we are defenseless. If you have any honour, you'd show yourselves, coward!"

I roll my eyes behind the blindfold before it is ripped off. Really, Sokka? We're tied up to...

I look behind me.

...a pole and the first thing in your mind is to challenge...

I look ahead of me.

...a bunch of girls with thick red and white make up? They are also wearing some kind of dress with armor on them. Soldiers, maybe?

I am bewildered at my current situation. What happened in my nap that we got end up getting captured by soldiers!?

"Aang, what happened? I'm lost." I turn to the airbender and whisper, hoping he would fill me in on what just happened.

"Oh, well. While you were asleep, I finally found the place where I could find the elephant koi. I got to ride it but then things went a little...chaotic. We got ambushed and here we are. I think you, Appa and Katara were caught somewhere else. You might want to ask her about it."

That summary of events is too vague for me that it took me a while to connect them. Oh well, I'll ask Katara later for more detail.

"You also missed my marble trick." Aang adds.

In the background, Sokka has angered one of the soldiers as one of them grabs Sokka's collar and pull him closeer to her. Her head piece has more decorations than the rest. But I'm more curious about this trick. "What trick?"

"You wanna see?" Aang beams as he asks this question. I nod twice before Aang mumbles to me about giving him a minute to get out of these ropes.

He draws in a big breath before shooting himself off the ground of out of the ropes, creating a cloud of dust that I accidentally breathe in. I hears people gasping and aweing at Aang's airbending but that's kinda old to hear now. I'm a little busy coughing here.

"Aang!" Katara gasps at Aang's sudden bending, fearing that it would provoke the warriors in front of them.

"Yeah! Show them who's boss, Aang!" Sokka encourages with a grin on his face.

"Was that airbending?" A question sounds from the crowd that have gathered.

After he had landed on the statue above the pole, free from his ropes by using the sharp edge of the fan that is part of the statue, Aang looks puzzled and is not sure where to focus his attention to. He looks at Katara, Sokka, me, then the audience he had gathered.

"You okay?" Aang asks me since he was in a conversation with me first.

"Fine...dandy." I grumble.

"Cool. Look at this!" Aang exclaims as he lands in front of me.

He reach into his robes and took out some of the marbles I gave him. He made to position himself so the audience could see him perform too.

"Ta-daa!"

Two of my marbles spin in a circle in between his hands as he look back and forth between me and the crowd with eager enthusiasm for our reaction. My lips twitch into a smile not because of the marble trick, it's not as impressive as I thought it would be, but instead because of his goofy expression. His eyes are so wide and happy that I end up chuckling while the crowd goes wild at this simple little trick.

"You see that? That's the Avatar! And you shouldn't mess with friends of the-Ow!"

Katara had to stop Sokka's gloating by stomping onto his foot. Hard.

"Please, we're friendly! So could you untie us? We mean no harm." Katara requests politely.

The soldier ladies didn't respond at first, stunned by the spinning marbles, before the one with the prettier hair piece snaps out of it and bring her friends out of their daze to let us go.

"That's..." I nod at the spinning marbles as I pause before I turn to Aang with amusement."...very cool, Aang."I answer with a smirk.

It would be even cooler if you could do more than two marbles but I really can't complain. Two marbles spinning in mid-air is still kinda cool.

"Do you mind getting the marbles a little further away from me? I'm afraid it might suddenly shoot me in the face."

"Oh, sorry."

* * *

"Breakfast!" Aang proclaims the first meal of the day.

I'm pretty sure it's lunch time, though...

Aang dives for the desserts for breakfast. I look around first, a habit to look at everyone to see if the elders have eaten yet. My parents taught me some manners that I did keep.

Only some though.

And...Aang is technically the oldest.

Then next is...

"Sokka? Come over the dinning table and eat something." I call out the second oldest.

"Not hungry." The second eldest pouts childishly.

Aang leans back to look past Katara where Sokka is sulking behind in a corner, his hand stretched out a pastry for Katara.

"But you said you were hungry back on Appa!"

Wait, Aang could hear Sokka from all the way back there?

Oops, that means he heard my question back then.

"Oh, he's just butt hurt from getting his but kicked by a bunch of girls." Katara teases as she takes a bite from an orange dessert that she had accepted from Aang's outstretched hand.

Well, that's everyone in the dinning table, minus Sokka. I pick up a pao shaped like a peach from one of the wooden trays. It's also slightly pink like one. I took a bite into the sweet filling and continued to watch them argue.

"They snuck up on me! It doesn't count" Sokka argues as he turns to us.

"It's still a legitimate tactic. It's called a surprise attack" I counter as I finish the small dessert pao and picks up the orange dessert Katara had tried.

That egg tart is next.

And that sago pudding.

"And who are you to say what's a legitimate attack?" Sokka challenges. "You've never fought! Or even know a single thing about battle, I bet!"

"Just cause I'm a girl?" I question. True, I don't know a single thing about battle but that doesn't mean I'm going to let him win. I don't like being considered weak just because I'm a girl. I prefer to be called weak for better reasons. "And history lessons taught me about sneak attacks and they work and they're real. In a real battle, you would have _died_." I growl as I force my point. A little bit aggressively.

"Psh, yeah. That's because those were _men_ in those battlegrounds. Not little girls!" Sokka snaps at me before he gets up to took some of the pastries and leave.

I glare at his back as I hear him mumbling in appreciation of the taste before walking out the door.

"Wan, that was too far." Aang notes after a moment of silence. I huff and look the other away from Aang.

"Well, Sokka isn't all that good with his arguments either. What he said was wrong." Katara tuts at her brother's sexist behavior. "For once it's nice to hear someone else argue with Sokka's sexism."

Aang, feeling like he'll be outnumbered if he tries to defend Sokka, remains quiet as silence can be the best answer.

"So, what are you guys gonna do after this?" I asks curiously.

"I'm going to explore. Maybe shop for a few things." Katara answers first.

"Didn't you just shopped at my home island?"

"Yeah but who knows what we could find here."

I guess Katara is right.

"What about you, Aang?" I waited after Aang had swallowed his food first before asking so he wouldn't rush to swallow and risk choking himself if I ask him too early.

"I'm going to spend time with the villagers. They really know how to treat an Avatar and it's great!" He cheers as he toss the last egg tart into the air. His mouth opened, ready to catch it.

Damn, I was going to eat that.

Half way falling into Aang's ready mouth, Momo leaps and snatch the pastry from the air!

"Hey!" Aang exclaims in shock as he turns to Momo with an undignified look because he had lost his tart to Momo.

Momo took a bite of the tart and turns to look at Aang mischievously before chewing right in front of him.

Katara and I laugh as Aang recovers to reach out a sago pudding while he lightly scolded Momo for stealing, leaving the last one. I quickly snatch it.

I swear, It feels like I need to fight for food right now.

"It's nice to finally see you enjoying being the Avatar, Aang. But remember that we're going to leave soon." Katara reminds. She has stopped eating after feeling that her stomach is satisfied.

"Yeah, I know. But I hope it wouldn't be too soon. I mean," Aang stands and head to the window. "I'm making this town happy. They're even re-painting the statue in my honour."

Unexpectedly, screams came from below the window once Aang reaches it. Katara and I exchange questioning glances before we head to the window to peak outside. There is a mob of young girls, screaming Aang's name and throwing compliments to his direction.

Wow.

"Sure, Aang...Just don't let this get into your head, alright?" Katara asks with concern in her eyes and Aang meet hers with eyes of excitement.

"Don't worry, Katara! I'm just a simple monk."

He then focuses his attention back to the crowd of girls and grins at them, causing the screaming to grow louder. Katara rolls her eyes and backs away from the window, making more space for me as I move to Aang's side

"This didn't happen in my village." I note as I compare the differences in my mind.

Aang visibly wince at the memory and laughs sheepishly, "Well, I didn't exactly give my best first impression."

He looks down at the cheering crowd eagerly, "But this time, It's going to be different. I'm going to be different."

I feel like I couldn't understand the full meaning behinds his words but the look in his eyes are one filled with hope. Like it's the beginning of something great.

Well, good for him!

"Okay, Aang. Have fun. I'll be out on the streets, most likely with Katara, so keep an eye out if you want to find us." I say as I walk away from the window.

Aang gives a sound of acknowledgement as he leaves running through the door. I walk up to Katara who is counting the money she has in her money pouch.

"Mind if I join your shopping?" I requests as I move my hand to my pocket, checking if my money pouch is with me too.

"Not at all. The more the merrier." Katara smiles as she tucks her money pouch into her pocket.

* * *

Author's note: Ah, and here we are. Well, I finally have a vague idea on where this story is heading. I'm still giving it some thoughts though and it's actually a long way from here.

I would also like to know if anyone has actually read from the beginning until here? Just out of curiosity.


	9. Shopping with the Girl From My Dream

Author's note: Bah! Forget making 'Children' a word in the title of every chapter! It's too hard!

* * *

"So, Katara, Aang told me that you, Appa, and I were caught together. What happened?" I ask her as we head towards the street.

The village is not really that big compared to my home village so it wont be long before we finish our little shopping trip.

"Oh, yeah! You were asleep throughout the whole thing! How did you even do that?" Katara responds with a new question as she turns to me curiously.

"Do what?"

"Sleep so deeply that you didn't wake up even after being carried around and tied up."

I can only stare at Katara as if I am waiting for a 'psyche!' like I did to her before but it seems she is serious.

"Seriously? I'm a heavy sleeper?" I ask again to confirm. My eyes squinting as if I'm trying to scrutinize myself.

"Yeah. We even tried to call you up but you just kept on snoring."

"Wait, I snore!?" My jaws hang, shocked by this news. "Why didn't anyone tell me-Oh wait. I sleep alone in my room. Then again, my mother would have known about this. But she also wakes me up for school and she doesn't have that much trouble waking me up."

...

"Sometimes" I add, remembering the times where I woke up with my mother yelling at me for not waking up the first time she woke me.

I didn't even knew I had even woken up at all during the first time. I stared at her like she was crazy the first time she yelled at me for this.

Katara really didn't have much to say as she watches me be deep in thought.

Finally reaching my conclusion, "I guess there were times I sleep like a rock. But only sometimes!"

Katara only shrugs as she didn't have an opinion about that and we continue to walk in silence.

But I don't want to walk in silence. She still has not answered my first question.

"About the capture...?" I trail off as I wait for Katara to pick up where I left off.

"Oh, right. The capture."

Is she okay?

"Well, when you fell asleep, we found Kyoshi Island. Aang went to swim to find the elephant koi while Sokka and I stayed on the beach. I brought Momo off Appa with me so he wouldn't disturb you. We left you on Appa because we thought you needed some rest from being emotionally drained. You looked like you really needed your rest. Your eyes look better now by the way."

My hands instinctively reach for my eyes to check on them. It doesn't feel swollen anymore.

"So while Aang rode the elephant koi,"

Wait, what?

"Appa ended up wondering off. I couldn't really let Appa walk around with you sleeping on his back so I chased after him. It seemed that Appa was lured by some food. I tried to tell him not to eat it but he went after it anyway. He didn't get really far so I caught up to him quickly. Then we were suddenly ambushed from above and around us. Appa and I tried to fight back but one of the Kyoshi warriors held you hostage. Said that they would hurt you if I don't surrender and calm Appa down. I convinced them to leave you on Appa alone because Appa didn't look to happy having an enemy on his back."

I look down in disappointment. Katara didn't see my reaction as her eyes are scanning through the shop's wares.

I am not disappointed in them, if anyone is to think that. It is at myself obviously. Of all the time to go into deep sleep, it had to be then...

"Appa seemed really reluctant. Even when they tried to get you off Appa once we reached the village, he tried to shake them off to protect you. I had to calm him down. Then we both got tied up while Appa was held somewhere else."

Once Katara had finishes her story, she turns to me and is surprised by the look of disbelief on my face. "What's wrong, Wan? Are you okay?"

It took a while for the information to process but slowly I start to nod my head, "Yeah...It's just...Appa tried...to protect _me?" _I point my finger to myself, making sure there is no mistake.

"Well, yeah. I guess so. We're all friends, aren't we?" Katara asks with a gentle smile as she continues walking onward.

I'm slightly stunned by the question, "...Yeah...Yeah! We are!" Jogging up to Katara with a grin, I change my pace to a slow walk once I reach her side.

This is so cool. I have friends! They're all my friends and they even tried to protect _me._

Sure it's not something to boast about but really, it just feels...nice.

Actually, no. It is something to boast about!

One day, I'll pay them back! I'll protect them too! One way or another.

* * *

Throughout most of time during our walk, we could hear ecstatic screaming. I found it amusing while Katara advised us to not get too close. I didn't understand why at first but every time I asked why she would look at the position of the sun. It's just a guess but I think she's really serious about leaving soon. I just hope I get to bathe first before leaving.

I'm currently carrying a giant pot. The kind that looks like it is meant to hold water and a bunch of big flowers. Not for groceries.

"Are you sure you can hold this, Wan? It looks kinda heavy." Katara places another pear-apple into the pot gingerly, as if expecting me to drop the pot anytime soon.

"Yup!" I chirp, "I'm quite strong, you know. No need to worry."

"Well, if you say so. But if it starts to get heavy, give it to me alright?" Katara didn't feel right letting a younger and smaller girl like me hold the big pot. It is big enough that when I carry it in my arms, I can't see where I'm going. Katara has to lead me around with a hand on my shoulder.

It is heavy but wasn't that hard to carry. The pot has a curve that widens up from the bottom of the pot and shrinks to form the neck. My arms just have to grab onto each other beneath the curve that is about to form the neck. My arms are pretty much around the bottom half of the pot. I then use my right leg to give support from the bottom. So while I walk, my right leg would give some support so I'm not holding it up all the time and it even hits it forward so I can move forward easily as well. I also get to rest a little because all I have to do is hold onto the pot so it doesn't fall over and my right leg keeps it from falling down.

Totally easy.

"Don't worry, I wont!" I grin cockily as Katara lands a hand on my shoulder, ready to lead the way.

"Oh hey, Aang!" I hear Katara call out. I turn to the direction she iss calling out to and sees Aang jogging his way towards us from the fangirls. "Good. Think you could help carry this pot for us? The pot is really heavy and I'm worried that Wan might not be able to hold it much longer."

I turn to her and whine, "But I thought I said that I could already?"

Aang wave a hand at me with a shrug, "Yeah, she looks fine. Plus, I really can't right now."

Katara raises an irritated eyebrow. Damn, can everyone do that? "You can't?"

Oh no, she has the tone of a mother on the verge of whipping out a punishment.

I stiffen at the familiar tone out of habit but Aang seems to be completely unaffected by it. "Yeah, I promised to give the girls a ride on Appa. How about you two come with us? It'll be fun!" He offers while smiling expectantly.

"Watching you show off-"

"Eeeeeyyy!" I but in while grinning akwardly, my eyes shifting back and forth between Katara and Aang. "As nice as that sounds, Aang, we don't really want to. I mean, look at the _bunch_ of girls you have! I mean, it looks like it's going to be a packed ride so there's no need for us to come. I mean, Katara must have rode on Appa a bunch of times and I already got my fill back at home sooooooo how about you just focus on them? I'm sure they'll love it! The more space the better."

Katara has an eyebrow raise at my oddly enthusiastic answer, her arms folded as she supports her weight on one of her legs but makes no move to continue where she left off. Aang blankly stares at me, as if processing what I have said into something easier to understand. Soon, his slumps shoulders rise up to shrug.

"We could always squeeze you two in. Come on and you'll see!" Aang tries to persuade but I shake my head.

"Maybe next time."

"...Okay, see you later!"

And with that, he runs back to the girls while waving goodbye to us with a grin on his face.

Once his back is turned to me, I let out the breath I was holding and turn to Katara. She didn't look too happy.

"Aha...Hi?"

"You really shouldn't have done that. If you keep encouraging him, we'll end up staying the night." Katara says as she lays both of her hands on my shoulders and lead me away.

"What's wrong with one night?" I ask curiously. "I mean, you stayed one night with me."

"I know but we couldn't exactly leave at the time. We had a reason to stay and it was more than just 'because we want to'." Katara lets go of my shoulders and scan the stall's merchandise. "This bracelet looks like a nice souvenir."

It is a bracelet of jade green with yellow designs engraved by hand. Yellow and red flowers were painted on the bracelet and they were very small and there were a lot of it. It must have taken a lot of time to just make one bracelet.

"No thanks. My mom already has one of those." I answer while I continuing to eye the bracelet. It's still really pretty.

"Oh? Okay then." Katara put the bracelet back and slightly bows apologetically to the merchant and lead me away some more.

"Anyway, we couldn't leave because Aang was determined to stay. He wouldn't, or couldn't, tell us why. Just said it was important. And when we finally found you, he was...well...not fit to leave. I'm still not 100% sure why he broke down like that. I...never really got around to ask."

Katara pauses and I remain silent, waiting for her to continue.

"Do...you know why?"

The question makes my heart stop and my feet stunned from the surprise. Katara is forced to stop as my stiff body wouldn't allow her to push me forward anymore. Turning around, I ask, "What?"

Katara retracts her hands from my shoulders and hold one of her arm while the other is on her thoughtful face.

"Well, you also chased us. Chased Aang, probably. Although your mother said you were screaming so loudly she swore the whole village heard you, we didn't hear you at all. All of a sudden, Aang turned around, telling us to just trust him and..we found you. Crying like Aang did before. It sounds like both of you know why. Do you mind explaining it to me? I..just don't really understand."

I put the pot down.

I feel like this is going to be a long conversation. I lay an arm on the pot while I look down at the earth, remembering and thinking on what I could tell her.

"Well, I'm not really sure what to say. I just...felt horrible. I just felt like I was dying inside when _you guys_ left." Needed to emphasized that. "The further I saw you guys go, the more lost I felt inside. I felt so afraid, I just jumped out of my window and started running. I felt so afraid that I just...cried, you know?" I take a moment to gather myself. Just remembering the whole emotional thing is making me a little uncomfortable. "And when you guys came back...I felt safe. I just felt like I was home. More so then when I am in my own house. After that, I just...couldn't let you guys go. I mean, I just couldn't bear the thought of losing my friends that I just kinda end up..."

I gesture my hand around us, "Here."

Katara takes a moment to replay what I had said in her mind, slowly processing the information carefully. The look on her face while she is doing so just says that she wasn't getting it.

"It was just instincts." I add. Hoping it would help piece up an answer for her.

It seems to have helped as she did some small nodding. "Okay. But that still doesn't explain how Aang suddenly chased you and how he suddenly turned back, knowing you were after us."

I shrug. That question is also one of my own questions. "I don't know. All I can say it that I felt a pull. Like, 'Don't just stand there, stupid. Run.'. Kinda like how there's a wolf-bear nearby and something inside of you tells you to run away even though it was far away from you? Just switch that into the opposite."

...

"And switch out the wolf-bear to something unknown."

"So..it's a calling?" Katara guess to try and make some sense from this conversation.

"Yeah! That's it! A calling!" I agree with her energetically. That word feels right so it must be the answer! A calling!

Katara scratches her head and then shrugs, "Eh, it's kind of weird but we're kind of weird ourselves."

"Heh." I breathe as I smile at the ground.

Yeah. And airbender frozen for a hundred years with his flying bison.

A waterbender from the south traveling with the avatar to the other side of the world.

A water tribe warrior attempts to make sure we stay on course and who's favourite weapon is a boomerang of all things.

A treat-loving flying lemur.

And an earthbender who doesn't know how to earthbend.

It's perfection.

"So...about that 'girl of my dreams'..." Katara trails off as she avoids eye contact with me when I snap my head towards her at the mention of my mistake.

"I meant 'girl FROM my dreams'! Not 'of!" I attempt to correct her but she isn't completely convinced. "Look, I just fell asleep in school and just dreamed up a bunch of blurry colours and saw a lot of blue and they were the same shade as your eyes. It was an honest mistake!"

"But how could a bunch of blurry colours end up making you call me the girl of your dreams!?" Katara exclaims as she toss her frustrated hands into the air.

Holy crap, was that what the conversation before was for? To get to this that seems to be bothering her!? Really!?

"I just saw a lot of blue!" I scream as I stress with both of my hands in front of me, attempting to show her how much I'm stressing this.

"...So it was just all a mistake?" Katara asks for confirmation but with some suspicion in her eyes.,

"Yes!" I stretch the word and emphasize it as much as I could. It is such an obvious answer!

Sure, she's pretty but I don't like girls that way!

Stupid 'Girl of my dreams' mistake! I'm never dreaming again!

Katara releases her tense shoulders and finally let out the breath she had been holding. She really was stressed about this!

She looks up at me and smile, "Good. Thank goodness we got that out of the way."

I feel my body weaken from this ridiculous conversation and lean against the pot. "Oh thank God. May we never have this conversation again." I say exasperatedly.

Fuck that mistake. Just...fuck that mistake.

"Alright! Let's pick up that pot and continue on with our way." Katara says cheerfully and it shows in her walk as she moves forward. I quickly pick up the pot and call for her to wait for me as I can't see past the pot's neck.

"By the way, you say 'I mean' a lot."

"That's actually just a nervous habit I have. Ignore that."

* * *

Author's story time: The method I described when Wan was carrying the heavy pot was a method I used back in school. We had plastic chairs stacked up really high and it's really heavy to move. My teacher took my class to carry those chairs and help sort it in the assembly hall. The boys did much of the heavy lifting.

The thing was that there were also a bunch of chairs already arranged in the assembly hall but they teachers wanted to change it? Don't know why. Oh well. Probably didn't like the colour.

So we had to stack up the unwanted chairs, move them to the back of the assembly hall, get the chairs stacked up really, really high down to the ground and sort them at the assembly hall.

This is a fond memory of mine because I figured out that method and managed to carry more chairs than any of the boys. I could carry a stack of chair pretty much twice my height easily. I'm 170cm tall. I was also the second tallest girl in my class.

So yeah, this is pretty much me showing off ahahahah!

I loved it and kept carrying stacks and stacks and stacks of chairs for one hour. After one hour, we had to be sent back to class for our next lesson but we were already almost done. I was sweating a lot but I felt great because I felt like I helped a lot. The method uses more technique than it does strength, so I could go for one hour and still be eager to do more.

Try it out sometime if you want to!

I even had some bruised lines on my right leg because I used it to kick around the chairs a lot while carrying them to move them around easily.

You were warned!

And also, one more thing.

Thank you for reading~!


	10. Jaws

After shopping, Katara and I took a bath in one of those open bath houses. We're currently walking back to our room to sort out the supplies we bought and pack them away properly. On our way back, we pass by the Kyoshi dojo.

"Hey, is that..."Katara trails off as she squints her eyes, trying to get a better look inside the dojo.

I follow her eyes but couldn't figure out what she is looking for. That is, until I noticed the ponytail.

"Sokka?" I breathe out.

Even though I have said the name softly, Sokka have manage to hear me and turn around to look at the caller of his name. The moment he sees us, his curious expression has morph into one of horror and embarrassment. Oh, how he move his head left and right, as if trying to find a place to hide but clearly there is none. He is right in the middle of the dojo.

Gotta admit, his squirming is quite adorable.

Katara and I try to suppress our snickering by using our hands to keep it in our mouth.

"Don't you say 'Nice dress'! It is an honourable uniform! Not a 'dress!'"Sokka cries out as he gestures to his current...outfit, trying to protect his pride.

"Fine! Nice make up, Sokka! How come you didn't tell me you knew how to apply make up? We could have exchanged tips." Katara teases and the effect of it are my hands squeezing the area of my mouth harder to suppress the laugh that is about to break through.

Oh my God, I'm about to bust a gut!

"Haha! Very funny! We'll see who gets the last laugh when I'M the one who gets to learn from the Kyoshi warriors!"Sokka retorts and lift his nose high into the air with pride as he folds his arms.

This news stir an interest inside of me that allows me to remove my hands from my mouth without breaking into laughter.

"Wait! You get to learn from them? I want to learn too!" I exclaim as I jog up to the dojo.

"Sorry, kid but we don't teach outsiders. Your friend here is an exception." A young lady comes up to the entrance with a hand up to stop me from entering. It's the one with the nicer head piece.

My shoulders slumps as I look up at her pitifully, "Why?"

"Because this training will not be easy. We allowed Sokka because he's already a warrior in his home tribe so he should be able to handle this training." She quickly spins her head to the boy, predicting that this would inflate his ego.

It did.

"_Should._" She emphasizes. Sokka quickly lowers his puffed out chest and stand still.

Turning back to me, she sees I am still looking quite dejected. She lays a hand on my shoulder and speak in a less stricter tone, "From what we heard about you from Sokka while we were getting him into the uniform, you have no fighting experience. We don't have the time to train you because it will take longer for you to learn compared to Sokka. And I don't think you and your friends have that much time left before you leave."

I hang my head. It is the truth and I don't have anything to argue back with. I look up, trying to keep the conversation going because I just don't want to leave on such a low note. "He talked about me?"

"Yeah. He talked about all of you."

I stare straight into her eyes, waiting for her to continue but she didn't have anything else to say. As she looks into my eyes, she eventually makes a decision.

"Tell you what. If you come back after the north pole and have some fighting experience, we'll teach you some moves, alright?"

I brighten up immediately and say, "Okay!"

The offer lifts me with joy. My back straighten and my shoulders have risen from the slumping. I'm now on my toes, slightly doing a happy dance by standing with one foot and switching to the other.

The warrior smiled and lifted her hand from my shoulder. With the same hand, she hovered it in front of me and introduced herself, "My name is Suki. "

"I'm Wan!" I grabbed her extended hand and shook. Once our hands disconnected, Suki extended her hand to Katara. I turned around and noticed that she was right behind me. I didn't even notice!

"My name is Katara. Sokka's sister."

"The waterbender, right?" Suki asks to confirm her facts.

"Yup!" Katara chirps happily. Once they have retracted their hands, Katara holds my wrist gently and starts to pull me away. "Come on, let's go. They look like they have other important things to do."

I nod and follow obediently. Katara aimes her next words to Suki, "It was nice meeting you, Suki. See you later!"

I follow Katara's example and say with a wave, "Bye bye!"

Suki replies with a wave, "It was nice meeting the both of you too. We hope to see you again."

And with that, we go our different ways.

* * *

Katara is back in our room, training her waterbending with a bowl of water on the table.

After we packed the stuff away, Katara thought that she should train too like her brother. I didn't know what to do and Katara gave me some advice to try and train as well. Do some exercise to build up some body strength.

But I just bathed...

And that's how I end up looking through my bags, seeing what kind of things did my mother pack into my bag.

The only thing out of place is that there is a book. Apparently, it was my mother's book that she wrote on her own. There's just a bunch of stuff like plants to look out for, bugs to look out for, how rich is a person by their walk, clothes, and manner of speaking. The front cover ss written, 'Mommy's survival guide for her baby.'

God dammit, mommy...

It looks worn and there are stains here and there on some pages . I swear, my mother is getting weirder the more I learn about her.

I hear footstep coming closer and entering the room. Turning to see who it is, I'm surprise to see Aang. I expected him to be with the girls all day!

"So...Wan, want to see me ride the unagi?"

I quickly rise up from the ground eagerly, "Yeah!" I shove the book back into the bag and close it.

Finally, I get to see this unagi! I'm practically the only one who doesn't know what this unagi looks like!

Running to his side, Aang turns to Katara with his hands behind his back. As I am standing beside him, I can see his thumb nervously rub the palm of his other hand.

"What about you, Katara? Want to join?"Aang asks.

"No thanks." She answers while keeping focus on keeping the blob of water afloat in the air.

Aang twitches away as if he is blown away by her quick rejection. I watch him pause as he tries to cook up another bait to lure Katara.

"It's going to be dangerous."

Oh, tapping into Katara's protective nature, huh.

_Good thinking._

"Then be careful, oh mighty Avatar."Katara says as her fingers stress to try and maintain her hold on the water.

_Or not..._

Even the water hovering in front of Katara has started to steam a little.

"You're not going to stop me?"

"Wan will be with you so I'm sure you'll be fine." Katara answers forcefully as she struggles to remain focused.

Clearly, Aang couldn't see that Katara has no interest in stopping her training so I grab his wrist and drag him outside.

"Wan, wait! What are you doing?" Aang objects as he tries to free himself but I respond by tightening my grip.

"Come on, Aang. The unagi doesn't have all day and Katara is clearly busy." I bluntly say as I continue to drag a struggling Aang further away from the house, unaware of what I'm doing to him.

"Wan, you're hurting me!" Aang hisses as he try to pull my fingers off his wrist.

Only then did I turn around and quickly release my hold. I retract my hand with such speed that it was as if I was the one who got hurt instead of Aang. Aang snatches his wrist to his chest and gingerly rub the white area that has the shape of my hand imprinted on it.

"S...Sorry..." I breathe as my hand hovered in front of me. I want to reach out and gently lay my hand on him to show that I didn't mean to hurt him, that I can be gentle.

I choose not to.

It would be awkward and I would feel like I'm pushing it. So instead, I just keep my distance and wait for Aang's reaction.

Once Aang is done massaging his wrist, he removes his hand to see if my hand print is still there.

It is. Just a little. But instead of white, it is now a little red. Looking closely, I could also see the indention of my fingernails.

I anxiously stay quiet as I watch him look at me. I am almost afraid that he would get angry with me but instead he look down at my outstretched hand.

Aang can sense it. My regret that I accidentally hurt him. He can also see it in my eyes. To show that he holds no grudge or was afraid that I would accidentally hurt him again, he reaches out his hand.

After a small pause of hesitation.

It is the same hand with the pinkish imprint of my fingers slowly fading away.

Aang gently lowers my hand down and says. "Don't worry about it."

Seeing his small reassuring smile, I lower my tense shoulders and smile back. A small one like his but with a lot more force.

"But you probably need to learn how to control your strength."

I chuckled weakly, "Yeah."

I take my offending right hand into my left, rubbing the palm to test out the force of my strength while Aang turns behind him.

"Why wouldn't Katara come with me?" Aang asks out loud.

I thought he's just asking a rhetorical question because how could I know the answer? But the longer he stays silent, the more I'm convince that he is asking for my opinion.

"She's just busy. I'm sure she would join you next time."

I try to keep a positive attitude but when he turns to look at me with such disappointment in his eyes, it fell.

"Why next time? Again? I already asked her before if she wanted to ride Appa with me. And you said next time! So when you said that you'll come with me to see me ride the unagi I thought..." Aang trails off and starts to walk away from the house instead of continuing his sentence, finally accepting his defeat.

I quickly walk up to his side as I take a moment of silence to think. "Ah...um..."

Aang watches me as I struggles to find my words.

"...I'm here?" I weakly offer.

_Wow, I really feel like such a failure right now. I can't even come up with some words that can make my friend happy!_

But the weak attempt manage to attract a small smile from Aang.

"Yeah, at least one of my friends are here."

Only when I hear this sentence did I realize why he wanted Katara to come. Or at least, that's what I think it is. He wants to spend time with his friends in the best way that he could come up with, right? Sokka is busy with training so Aang knows that Sokka would reject his offer. It is only me and Katara left and he wants to spend time with us.

Oh damn.

"Are you okay?" Aang asks with concern as he stares at my face as it is frozen with dumbfounded-ness.

"Oh yeah, it's nothing! Don't worry, Aang! We're gonna have lots of fun with the unagi! Then next time, Sokka and Katara would definitely beg to join us!" I cheer as I lay an arm over his shoulder. I can't believe it took me took long to realize it so now I'm going to do my best to cheer him up!

Aang is surprised by the sudden cheeriness from his littler companion, and a little confused, but allowed my grin to infect him. Soon, he shines a bright grin as he also lays an arm over my shoulders.

"Yeah! Let's ride the unagi together!" Aang cheers as he pumps a fist into the air with his other arm.

"No way!" I reject with an equally cheerful tone that mirrors Aang's, "Just you! I just took a bath and I'm not looking forward to another one."

* * *

I got to chat with the girls for a while. The crowd that I had seen at the beginning of the day have shrunk into a small group. Just 6 of them left. It was a short conversation since they were only interested in Aang and since I only just joined his team, I didn't have much to say.

The only thing I said were pretty much lies since I don't want them to know about Aang's...er...bad first impression back in my home island. I just told the girls that everyone's reaction back home was the same as here.

All of us sat on the ground as we watch Aang float in the sea. Some even got bored of looking at him and started drawing circles on the snow around us.

"What's taking so long?" A girl named Koko whines.

"I'm sure it will be here any second!" Aang reassures them but none of the girls seem convinced.

"What did you do last time to attract it's attention?" I ask in an effort to try and help him.

"I was swimming and the unagi just came after me. It was much quicker last time." Aang answers.

"But where is it now? It's getting late." Koko asks as she gets off the ground, bringing everyone attention to the time of the day.

The sky is getting orange. It almost made me feel like a lot of time have been wasted. Almost though since there are parts of today that I wam glad that it happened.

The girls, realizing that their family must be wondering where they are right now, get off the ground and start to leave. I get off the ground as well. I am a little worried that I might accidentally get kicked or something.

"Wait, where are going? Don't leave!" Aang requests as he tries to wave for their attention.

"Sorry, Aang. Maybe next time." Koko replies as she and the girls leave.

Once the girls have left, I turn to Aang to see how is he doing. Aang looks at me dejectedly before turning his gaze to the waters. I watch him remain in the waters, reluctant to leave. With such forlorn expression, he looks even more lonely out there with so much space around him.

I take off my shoes.

Hearing the sound of water splashing, Aang rises his head in curiosity and is shock to see me struggling to get deeper into the waters.

"Aaah, cold! Cold! Cold!" I hisses at the cold waves as more and more of my skin are touched by the pulling and pushing of the sea. I struggle to keep myself upright as I walk deeper into the sea, my toes sinking slightly as the waves pushed the sand to cover my toes. The legs of my green pants start to get heavy as it absorbs more weight of the water but soon it didn't matter as I now have to float off the ground.

"Wan, I thought you said you weren't going to ride the unagi with me?" Aang asks as he swam a little closer.

"Yeah, but since it isn't here, I don't mind coming into the water with you." I reply as I stop swimming. The long, wide sleeves of my green shirt with yellow hems are making it a little difficult to swim. It's not as thick as Katara's or Sokka's winter wear because I like the cold but now I wish I have something like that waiting for me on shore. I just know that the moment I leave the sea, I will be absolutely freezing. I fold the sleeves until the length is above the elbows and continue to swim.

"What about your bath?" Aang asks as he stop swimming, letting me come closer to him.

"I can always get another." I say with a reassuring grin.

Finally reaching to Aang, I scatter droplets of water into the air as I raise my arms above me and cheer, "Ta-daa~!"

Aang chuckles as my silliness, "Now what?"

With a finger on my cold, wet cheek, I ponder on Aang's question until an idea pop into my head. I remove my finger from my cheek and let the hand touch the waters to initiate my plan.

And I flick some water to his face.

"Ah! Hey!" Aang protests but when he met my mischievous grin, he responded with his own and position his arms in the water. "Oh, it's on."

Splashes and laughter ensues as we splash each other and easily fail at dodging or blocking each other's attacks. Amid the sounds of water splashing, we barely register a stray splash not too far away from us. It is only when a shadow loom over the two of us did we realize we're not alone. Although the source of the shadow is already sinking back into the sea, it is unmistakable that it is a part of a dorsal fin.

I would have been frozen stiff from fear but the cold air made me shiver and instead assisted the fear to spread down my spine. Despite expecting its presence, dread has manage to surface on Aang's expression. When the waves start to shift only did we manage to register how much danger we are currently in.

"Aang?" I whimper as I force myself to swim against the wave that is rising and pushing me away, forcing me to lose sight of Aang. I am frantically trying to balance myself as not to sink into water.

"I'm over here!" I hear Aang call out and I desperately swim towards the direction of his voice. I am granted a shred of relief once I manage to see Aang trying to swim to my direction as well but before we could reach to each other, I feel something slimy grazing my toes. I screech as my legs freeze, refusing to move out of fear of the unknown. Aang screams in panic as he frantically tries to escape a sudden push raising him from below, causing more waves to rise.

"Shit! Shit shit shit shit shit!" I hiss hysterically, trying to balance myself as the slimy feeling spread to my legs and lift Aang and I out of the water. It is so slimy and slippery that I struggle to crawl to Aang's side. He tightly grabs my arms and I grab onto his, making sure I'm not holding too tightly this time but I'm pretty sure I still am. I'm too scared of accidentally being separated from Aang again, leaving me alone in danger that I just want to hold onto him as tightly as I could.

"What is this!?" I ask as I frantically scan over the surface that we are currently on.

I knew. Oh, I knew but I still hope that it is not what I am thinking. Sadly, any hope I have attempted to gather manage to slip through my fingers so easily as a tall shadow grow larger and larger.

"The Unagi..." Aang breathes, noting his tone of how he said the Unagi's name.

A head lifts itself to high that it blocks the sun from our point of view. It darkly snarles at us as the shadow gives his green-eyed glare an extra edge. Water leaks down from his mouth like a waterfall, as if he is slobbering at the sight of us. My petrified eyes stare up at what I could only call a monster. The world suddenly feels so small that it assures me no matter how hard if I am to run or hide, I will surely be found very quickly.

I feel myself being pulled deeper into my petrified state when the monster raises its head and opens its jaws.

"Hold on!" Aang screams as I feel him let go of me. I quickly obey and wrap my arms around him as I brace myself for the worst.

I feel the Unagi's body beneath us shifting as it sends a powerful jet of water towards us. I shut my eyes tightly and hold my breath so I don't accidentally inhale any of the disgusting water.

I pray with my all that we would be okay.

I feel the warm winds attempting to push us away from the dorsal fin that we are hiding behind, trying to push us off the Unagi's body when the water could not. The jet of water starts to lose it's power and the warm water mixed with the saliva and stench of the Unagi washes over our body.

We both gasp in new breath of air as we turn to anticipate what the Unagi would do next. The Unagi positions its head as its body coil itself. Its jaws open and ready to snatch us off his body. I feel a hand on my back as Aang positions himself to avoid the Unagi's incoming attack. I instantly copy him and focus all of my energy into my legs.

And we scream as we shoot ourselves high into the air.

"Aaaah! I didn't mean to go this high!" Aang exclaims as we stare down the Unagi watching us from below.

The Unagi's body starts to coil and pushes itself high into the air with its jaws open, awaiting for its preys to just fall in.

"Do something!" I scream as our fall slowly increase its speed.

And we enter the jaws of the Unagi.

* * *

Author's note: So, I went back to my old chapters and re-read it to find that there were a lot of mistakes.

I was completely shocked because I was sure I had read through them more than once! I realized that maybe because the story was still in my head, I could easily miss errors and connect the story just fine in my head.

So I decided that after every few chapters, I would go back and re-read it again for errors.

*sigh* I am so disappointed in myself at missing so many mistakes! I feel bad for the readers having to go through that.

I'm sorry and I hope it's better to read now.

Thank you, Readers!


	11. Fly airbender, fly!

I'm currently having some problems with the word documents so I can't edit like I normally could. I'll try and copy the things that look like paragraph codes to continue writing. So if the story looks like a big block of texts, sorry but it is truly out of my control and I'll fix it when I can.

But for now, I'd like to thank my reviewers. You guys sure gave me a shock when I woke up one morning to suddenly find twelve reviews! The first thing that came into my mind was 'Oh no, what did I do?' so it was a pleasant surprise to find wonderful reviewers that supports me and gave me much appreciated advice!

Thank you to True Thinker for showing great enthusiasm while reading my story. Your energy just motivates me to continue writing so thank you for that! I would also like to point out that this story is probably going to be slow because I want to explore a moment or scene so Toph will sadly come a lot later in this story.

Thank you bucketbot for reading all the way to my latest chapter despite having different taste. Thank you for the encouragement!

Thank you algebra123230 for the advice and pointing out the flaws that I need to work on. Yeah, the tenses have always been a problem for me. In this chapter, I'm focusing on present tense and hope it's okay. I feel a little odd writing like this but this is the tense I want to write in. It's definitely difficult because I always need to change the sentence structure to work in present tense. This is also the first time I'm hearing the word 'Colloquial'! I had to google it to figure out what it means! Although I don't fully understand it, I think I some what understand it. I hope, haha!

Now, on to the story that I'm writing while the document editing page is buggy.

* * *

My eyes are shut tight, seeing nothing but darkness that I'm sure it will be the last thing I see.

I wait for the inevitable slide of slime that will lead me down to the stomach of the monster.

My heart beats anxiously as I hear a wind blowing around me, convincing me that I am still falling.

I can hear the Unagi snarling through it's mouth.

I can hear Aang's heartbeat as I hold onto him for dear life.

Hearing so much life going around me, I crack my eyes open in curiosity.

"I...was trying to make an air ball to stop us from falling but..."Aang starts as he watch the jaws above us struggle to lower itself. "Instead, I accidentally made a barrier..."

"How does one accidentally make a barrier? I doubt this is something that can be accidental!" I said as I gestured to the ball of air that protects us from the jaws of death.

The Unagi attempts to clench its jaws to break our barrier but only manages to shrink the ball by just a little. It starts to swerve left, right, up, and down as it tries use the momentum to force his jaws close. Both of us scream as the Unagi's plan is frighteningly working. The continues swerving causes Aang to lose focus, making our air barrier shrink smaller and smaller.

Aang tries to explain himself in hurried panic, "I don't know! I just kept feeling an extra push of energy making whatever I've been trying to do much stronger!"

"Then shoot us out of here and hope it continues to push us back to shore!" I snap back as I watch the upper and lower row of teeth getting closer to each other.

The ball is definitely slowly closing in on us. If we don't move, we're definitely gonna be Unagi chow!

"Hold on! This is going to get bumpy!"

"Aang! We're in the middle of the sea! How is it going to get bumpy!?" I screech but was ignored as Aang raise his hands into the air. He look out of the gap between the jaws, straining to see the shore but the Unagi was moving too erratically for him to aim properly.

In a desperate attempt to help and to just make the Unagi stop for one second, I claw at the Unagi's tongue, causing the monster to flinch at the stinging pain. In the Unagi's temporary stunned status, Aang manages to spot the shore and clap his hands, sending a burst of air that shoots us out of the Unagi's mouth right before it snaps shut.

We scream as we feel ourselves flying through the air and slowly heading downwards. After creating a second ball around us, Aang holds me tightly against him protectively and I continue to hold on as we both brace from impact. The ball hits the water but instead of either sinking or floating like I expected, we end up skipping off the body of water. That one impact breaks the ball and sends us flying back onto shore. The force of our landing causes us to release our hold and roll off each other.

"I feel like I'm having a de ja vu..."I groan as I force myself off the ground. I take a quick moment to look around us. We have landed much more to the side of the shore where the earth is more solid and where trees are starting growing to form a forest.

I shift my eyes to the sea and feel another wave of panic rising within me, "Watch out!"

I quickly grab the groaning Aang from the ground and pull him behind a big rock. I didn't have the energy to handle him gently so I toss him to the ground, causing him to fall on his knees while I lean back to the rock. Aang would have protested against the rough treatment but with the effect of facing the Unagi still fresh in his mind, his numb body hardly felt a thing. The both of us curl into a ball behind the rock just as the Unagi shot another powerful jet of water towards the rock that shields us.

Aang and I peak over the rock once the attack has stopped to watch the Unagi roar and spew water in a fit at random directions before diving back into the ocean.

We sigh with relief.

But the peace was short lived.

"Oh no...Ooooooooh no..."I groan as I slide my back down the rock.

"Fire nation...I think it's Zuko!" Aang solidifies the fact that I was trying so hard to wish that it was just all of my imagination before returning to the safety of the rock.

I'm wet and I'm cold. My body already feels so drained from the Unagi's attack that I just...don't want to move anymore. Yet, I continue to shiver from the cold that continues to use up more of my energy.

I turn to the sound of teeth chattering coming from my left to find Aang attempting to keep himself warm by curling tightly into a ball. His hands are gripping his pale arms tightly and running his hands up and down to create some warmth. I quickly move to his side and wrap my arms around him. My sleeves have been released from the elbow length fold I had folded them in before during the Unagi's attack. The water in my wide sleeves are cold, causing Aang to flinch but soon his teeth chattering has become less violent as he leans into my warmth.

"Where on earth are your clothes!?" I hissed through clenched teeth, trying to keep my own teeth from chattering.

Aang and I can hear the boat hitting the sand of the shore.

Aang quickly responds, "Behind the trees on the other side of the shore. I didn't want the girls to watch me undress to I hid behind the trees."

I can only grin and give a shaky breath of a chuckle. I didn't mean for it to be so weak but being cold and afraid would not let me have full control over my body. Aang grins back when he realizes that it does sound kind of funny.

Both of us quickly force ourselves still when we hear the sound of the sand and snow being crushed by a weight that sounds very heavy. Our grins immediately falls off our face as we focus all of our energy into our hearing, hoping the sound of heavy footsteps would not come towards us.

"Bring me the Avatar. I know he's somewhere around here." I hear an unfamiliar voice speak out. It confuses me why the voice sounds like it's coming from a height higher than the ground. And I doubt that Zuko is that tall as I remember the description I was given.

Heavy footsteps proceed to march onward. Aang removes my arms from his shoulders so he could turn and peak over the rocks. Not wanting to be left in the dark, I follow Aang's lead.

We saw a group of fire nation soldiers riding on komodo rhino's walking up the shore and headed to the direction of the Kyoshi village. I expected more soldiers so I am kind of surprised to see only a small group of men. I could not get a good look at the soldiers' faces since it's covered by some face armor that reminds me of skulls. It creeps me out a little that I actually know what a real life skull looks like. Only one guy at the front leading the group did not have the mask on but the helmet created a shadow that cloaks his face.

Neither of us made a sound as we wait for them to pass us and continue to further on ahead to build some distance before either of us draw in a breath of relief.

"What now?" I ask Aang as he left his knees and onto a crouching form.

"I'll go get my clothes. You wait for me. We'll head to the village together." Aang says before he leaves the safety of the rock.

"Your highness," One of the soldiers suddenly call out. Suddenly feeling the rising fear of getting caught, Aang quickly leaps over the rock and leans against it, nearly hitting me in the process if I had not dodge. We remain hidden behind the rocks while the enemy continue to converse. "Look."

I resist myself from looking over the rocks, fearing that if I do, I would be facing the the enemy that might be looking straight at us. Aang, on the other hand, peaks over. I can't imagine how Aang is not petrified like me despite being so close to getting caught.

"Hmm...This is just a normal pair of black shoes. Leave it. It probably belongs to a forgetful villager. Let's move."

The sound of the heavy footsteps washes relief and comfort over me as soon as I heard it. As soon as Aang was sure they were not going to turn, he dashes out to the open shore. I anxiously look over the rock to watch Aang run across the shore without making a single noise. Paying close attention to his feet, I did not see any air shifting beneath them with the use of his airbending to softens his footstep. It amazes me at how light-footed he naturally is.

None of the fire nation even notice him sneaking behind them.

I sigh in relief and continue my rest behind the rocks as I wait for Aang to return.

* * *

"Should we really be wasting energy on running when we're heading straight for battle?" I ask between pants as we ran to the village. My clothes no longer contain the extra weight of water thanks to Aang. But because he had to airbend the water off of me, my hair became disheveled in the process.

"We've got no other choice. My glider can't hold two people. It's only meant for one." Aang explains as he gestures to the staff in his hand.

"Are you saying I'm heavy?" I ask, slightly offended.

"What?" Aang blurts as he is caught off guard by the accusation. "No! I just don't think that I can keep us afloat! I've never shared a glider with someone before."

Skeptically, I look at him straight in the eyes and lay down some facts, "You've created a giant ball in the jaws of an Unagi and kept us alive, shot us out of there flying, and skipped off the sea like we were rock skipping but instead we were the rocks."

"Yeah but I already told you! There was some sort of energy flowing into me. I didn't know what was going on or where it came from but I can feel that it's not here anymore." A flustering Aang explains as he shrugs with his hands in the air, clearly having no clear answer.

"Try again." I urge.

"But-!" Aang resists.

"_Try._" I insist.

Looking into my determine eyes, Aang just knows that I am not backing down until I am proven wrong with real facts and not with some speculation. Soon, he slows his running into a jog and then he completely stops.

"Alright. But we will try to jump from the ground first. I don't want to accidentally break my staff." Aang says as he unwillingly spread the wings of his glider.

Setting the glider behind him, he position his limbs and then signals to me, "Grab the area next to my hands."

"Okay." I comply and carefully set my hands on the wood, making sure I get a good grip.

"Not too hard!" Aang alarms to reminds me to not use too much strength and accidentally break it.

"Okay! Geez, I'm not that strong alright?" I say, momentarily forgetting the times I had broken some wood with my bear hands. My desk at school and the window sill back at home.

But there's no reason for Aang to know as it would just make him worry even more.

"Ready?" Aang asks and we shift our feet, ready to jump into the sky. "Jump!"

As soon as our feet left the ground, Aang airbends a burst of air beneath us to send us into the air. We manage to reach about the same height as the trees before slowly descending back onto the ground.

"See?" Aang enforces his point that two people can not ride share a glider.

"No, try harder! I know you can do better than this." I plea with my hands remaining on the gilder, refusing to let go. "If we can do this, we can get there faster."

"Wan! We don't have time for this!" Aang argues as he moves away from the glider. "Zuko must have reached Kyoshi village by now and-"

"Please."I calmly look into Aang's frantic eyes. "Trust me."

The both of us have a silent battle of will. It feels odd on how easy it is to read each other's thoughts just by looking into each other's eyes. Aang just wants to get to the village as soon as possible. Zuko threatened the entire water tribe the last time they met. Aang could pray all he wants but he just knows that Zuko wont be so merciful next time. But this troublesome girl in front of him, oh troublesome me, just will not settle for running when we could be flying to Kyoshi village. It will save time and energy if we would just keep trying.

Aang finally breaks and release an annoyed sigh, "Fine."

I grin cheerfully as I take a few steps closer to him, holding up the glider for him to hold on.

"I'll try to have a running start this time. It should make it easier to fly than just jumping." Aang suggests as he face his back towards the glider and grabs on.

"Yes, yes, yes." I agree as I nod eagerly.

"Wrap your legs around my waist, I can't run like this." Aang says as he pulls my upper body down by lowering his stance as he prepares himself for a run.

"Can you really run with me on your back?" I ask as I carefully try to wrap my legs around him without jumping onto him, worrying that he might accidentally stumble because of it.

"Yeah, I'm stronger than I look. I'm a trained monk after all. And a master airbender to boot!" Aang boasts as he turns to look at me through the gaps of the glider's wings, confidence finally gleaming in his eyes before he throws my words back at me, "Trust me."

I return a look of support as I try to get more comfortable. It's not as easy as I thought it would be since I have a long vertical piece of wood pressing against my body. Sadly, it seems I will never be fully comfortable a I feel time rushing me to get to Kyoshi village as soon as possible so I just settle with the level of comfort I have now.

"Okay!"

"And...here we go!" Aang grunts as he tries to get his running momentum going.

I feel even more uncomfortable when the running starts as it causes my body and the spine of the glider to continuously collide painfully. All I could do now is to tighten the grip of my legs around Aang's waist and press my face against the glider's spine, minimizing the bumping as much as I can.

Aang pants as he runs forward with all of his might. Once he feels that he has enough momentum, he takes the first jump. We manage to fly above the trees, almost doubling the height we did before.

"I...felt it! The energy!" Aang exclaims but we are hardly gliding as we slowly descend back to the ground.

"We're almost there! We flew up way higher this time!" I encourage and I continue to silently pray for this to work. "We can do this!"

"Yeah. Let's do this again!" Aang says spiritedly before his stumbles to continue running once his feet touches the ground.

He sprints forward as he gathers more air around him. I can even feel his liveliness from his airbending, feeding me more hope of this succeeding if we keep trying. Our eyes remain focus on our goal, the sky high up above us like our expectations.

"Let's..." Aang starts, bending the air to give him more speed in his run. I can even feel the glider lifting just a little bit.

We are both eager and anxious for this stunt to work. Our hopes blend into one and we can feel our energy mixing together as we yell in unison, "Go!"

What I see next is a blur. A blur of white and brown that grows further away from us from below.

It was the ground. The snow white ground and leafless trees zooming past below us.

Neither of us says a thing as we stare at the ground, wondering if it's just an illusion. And if it isn't, we're waiting for the eventual fall.

But we remain gliding in the air.

"...We did it." Aang breaths out in disbelief, snapping me out of my daze and allow me to fully embrace this moment.

"We did it!" I exclaim cheerfully.

But the moment is short-lived as the view of the earth starts to change.

"Oh! Oh no! Whoa!" Aang screams as he tries to keep control of the glider but it persists to point downwards to the ground.

The air resistance pushes my upper body from the glider's spine, forcing me to get a good look despite my efforts not to. I feel myself starting to panic as I see nothing but the cold, hard ground waiting eagerly for us. I can't even find it in myself to look away as I beg for Aang to save us in one way or another. It was only when I can't open my mouth or find my voice did I realize I have been shell-shocked with fear.

Aang sucks in some air and bends it so that it would send him back into straight gliding formation but instead it sends us further upwards into the air.

"Not again!" Aang whines as history repeats itself. "Don't worry, Wan! I can do this! I can do this! I'm a fast learner so I should be able to balance this quickly."

"You better! And by the way, Aang, _this_ is a bumpy ride!" I cry as we start to descend once again only for Aang to send us upwards again but less upright and more forward.

Our cries of worry will sound once in a while as we continue to slide upwards and downwards in the air, slowly but eventually getting a little more control.

"There! I can see Kyoshi village!" Aang points out the village not far from here. Even from where we are, we can see the Fire Nation soldiers seated on the komodo rhinos.

"Why are they just...standing there?" I question the questionable action of the enemy. I squint my eyes to get a better look as I suspect that I'm probably missing something. No enemy would just stand there and do nothing.

"I don't know but count that as a blessing that they have not attack yet. We might be able to settle this without anyone getting hu-Uuuuh!" Aang's sentence got cut off by his own screaming as we start to descend once again.

"Up, up, up!" I chant as I pull the gilder up back into position in an attempt to save us. With the help of Aang, the glider manages to glide normally but downward towards the village.

"Just a little more!" Aang pleas.

We watch as the closer we get to Kyoshi village, the closer we are to the ground.

All was going smoothly until we realize that we're flying straight towards the Fire Nation soldiers. I'm kind of hoping that they would just suddenly notice us and move out of the way themselves but they remain oblivious to our oncoming presence.

"Look out!" Aang alerts the enemy as we're about to hit them.

The soldiers turn in curiosity but quickly ducks to avoid getting their heads possibly knocked off as the two of us narrowly glide right over them. The only thing that got hurt was a single helmet from the soldier at the very front of the group.

"Avatar!" A rough voice calls out as Aang stumbles the landing.

Aang turns toward Zuko, allowing me protection while I carefully release my hold of Aang's waist from my numb legs. The scare from the flight manage to scare all feelings from my body, causing me to wobble before I can release my hold of Aang's glider without falling onto my knees.

"Zuko." Aang greets as he falls into his battle stance. I look up in curiosity to see who this Zuko person is like and if he resembles how he was described to me.

At the very front of the small group of Fire Nation soldiers, a young teen sits on a komodo rhino. Zuko is the only one without a helmet and it's probably because we're the ones who knocked it off in the first place. This allows me to have a better look and he looks exactly like how he was described to me.

A teen with no hair on his head except for a dark brown ponytail that looks a little messy, like he does not have the time to maintain it or has more important things to do other than take care of his hair. A face that looks like it has been frozen in a scowl for years. Despite having a good distance between us, his gold eyes still manages to glow as it focus intensely on the prize ahead of him.

And the most noticeable feature of all, a horrible burn on his left eye.

It occupies almost a third of his face. An uneven skin tone where the area around the eye is darker than the rest of the burn. His entire face looks off without an eyebrow to match the other un-burnt half of his face. The skin with the lighter burn has formed layers on his cheek, as if the skin was melting off of his face but still manages to hold on. The left eye looks like it could not open anymore than the slit it is already in, forever freezing the eye to a eternal glare. I guess that he was burned while his eyes were closed because it looks like his left eyeball is just fine.

During my analysis on Zuko's appearance, Aang notices silhouettes appearing on the roofs. Zuko and half of his men dismount the komodo rhino and stand side by side with their weapons at ready. Only Zuko is bare-handed with his fist raised in front of him. I'm the only one who's absolutely defenseless and not ready for battle. The only one with no experience in fighting whatsoever. I take a step back, worrying about the worst possibilities that could happen to me if I don't think of something quick.

But time's up.

"Attack!" The Fire Prince announce the start of the battle.


	12. A Fiery Man

Author's note: Finally, sorry this took so long and I really have no excuse. I just lost my will to write for a bit because this has a lot of things going on and it's hard to maintain focus for so long. Not only that but things I plan for the story tends to change as I write so because of that, I need to take breaks to rethink the scenarios and how it would go. But I've finally done it! Hurray!

VHS vs Betamax: Thank you! :D I'm so glad that it's received that way because I tried really hard to make their reactions realistic. Thank you for reviewing and I'm so glad you're liking it so far :) Wan is a girl but I'm sure you would have noticed that by now.

True Thinker: Yeah, Wan is the name of the first Avatar. It's actually funny because I actually gave Wan her name like around 2 weeks before Avatar Wan is revealed! Imagine my delight and horror when Avatar Wan appeared! Haha! I actually wanted to change Wan's name after that but I was so set on it and it fits so well that I end up not being able to think of a new name for her. So in the end, I kept her as Wan.

bucketbot: Thank you very much! I'm glad you pointed it out to me and I do try to fix them but sometimes they fly over my head either because I missed it or because my grammar isn't good enough. And I'm also glad you like the details! That's want I really want to do! Built relationships between them and for that, I need to slowly go through the canon materials. But I'll also be adding tiny arcs of my own so it's going to make this story very, very, very long. I also don't want to go too slow or else everyone would get bored.

This chapter is actually an example of going too slow. This arc has gone long enough so I'm kind of squeezing a lot of things in here so the story can get a move on.

* * *

Kyoshi warriors leap from the roof top to start the battle with a sneak attack, kicking the Fire Nation soldiers off their komodo rhinos to even the playing field. Zuko is caught off guard but quickly pushes the surprise aside. He focus purely on the Avatar before sending a series of fire punches.

Being just behind Aang, I can only raise my hands in front of me instinctively while Aang does some actual defence by deflecting the attack to the side.

"Wan, run!" Aang whispers to me while keeping his eyes on Zuko, refusing to give the enemy an opening.

I hesitate at first but my common sense reminds me that I'm useless on the battle field. If I stay, I'll just get in the way.

And Aang knows it too.

I turn to run away from the heating battle, growing hotter as fire starts to fly and setting houses on fire. Kyoshi warriors passes by as they run towards battle with a hard face and fans brandished. I pay them as much attention as they do for me, which is none at all. I'm so focus on not getting in anyone's way that I didn't notice Sokka passing by until he turns and grab my arm.

"Where's Katara?" Sokka asks, still in full Kyoshi uniform.

"I don't know! The last time I saw her was when she was practising her waterbending back in our room. I don't know where she is now." I rush the words as quickly as I can out of my mouth. There is a smell of smoke becoming stronger as the colour of fire peaks at the corner of my eye.

"Here, take Momo. He'll guide you to Katara. Then get Appa and stay close to him." He says and emphasize his next few words,"Make sure my sister is safe."

"Okay."I say eventually after I numbly nod my head.

Once Sokka receives my reassurance, he dashes off into battle. Momo turns and wait for me to tell him what to do. Even just by looking into Momo's big eyes, I can feel that he knows that we're in danger and it's not the time to fool around.

"Find Katara." I order and Momo obeys audibly before flying off my shoulder.

I quickly run after the flying lemur, trying to keep up with him. The longer I run, the less I feel like my back is burning form the intense heat from the battle behind.

Since Kyoshi's village is small, it isn't long before I can see furs of white and blue. Before I can even call out her name, she has already turn her eyes to me as if she sense me.

"We need to find Appa." I pass the message once I stand in front of her. At the corner of my eye, I see a movement so I turn. I see the same group of girls huddling together inside the hut but some of them are not here. All trying their hardest not to tremble but failing while looking at us like we're the only people they can trust to protect them right now.

"I can't. I need to get people from the burning houses." Katara says as she gestures to the fire that is slowly growing more visible. Just when I think I have ran away from the heat, the heat gives chase.

Adults and children running from the fire, holding each other tightly while others try to hide from the Fire Nation soldiers. Kyoshi warriors fighting 2 to 3 soldiers for each warriors, barely holding them back and protecting the villagers. No one is bleeding a shed of blood. If this goes on, the village will burn to the ground before their energies will.

"Fine. We'll do a quick run to check then we'll get Appa. With a Flying Bison that can airbend, we should be able to contain the fire. Be quick." I suggest and Katara agrees with no complaints.

"Momo, stay with Katara and keep her safe." I tell Momo as I point to Katara for Momo to fly to.

"What? Why should Momo protect me? What can he do?" Katara questions as Momo lands on her shoulders. She flinches away as she tries to reject him but Momo lands without a problem.

"Don't know. Your brother told me to make sure you're safe. Since I can't do it, Momo will do it for me." I yell out to her over my shoulder as I already make my dash to do my check.

I just hope I'll get lucky and encounter no one.

After just a few minutes, I'm just a little past halfway done. I've been checking every corner, every alley, every hiding spot to make sure no one is near the fire. And thank the stars that there are none. I think I've seen Aang gliding above but I pay to mind to it, thinking he's just avoiding fire benders. I'm silently grateful though since him being in the air makes it easier for me to sneak around the soldiers. The enemy are more than halfway into the village and the houses behind them are more than halfway burnt to the ground.

I almost didn't bother searching those houses since it's impossible for anyone to be inside a house at that state. There's also that unfamiliar stench in the air. I would really like to get away from here as soon as possible.

But I still search the houses anyway. If I don't, I would feel like I'm slacking and could potentially put someone's life in danger. I will just do a quick scan. Being out here all alone is making me very uneasy and paranoid that an enemy would just pop up from a corner.

"Eh...?" I breathe out as my eyes barely catches a colour that strays from the usual colour range of fire.

I quickly stomp my feet onto the ground and swerve my body towards the burning house where part of it has already collapsed.

"Hey!"I hiss from the house's entrance. "Don't just stand there! Move!"

I check my surrounding to see if any of the enemy heard me. Hearing nothing but silence gives me relief and discomfort.

The person inside the house isn't moving. He or she, wearing thick green clothes, is just sitting there. The front half of the body is behind a wall so I can only see a slouched back and feet. The inside heat causes everything I see to waver, making me wonder if the wavering heat is just making me believe that there's a person inside instead of something else.

But can I really just leave a person in there? It's strange that the stranger is just sitting there but it's not like I can just turn around after seeing this.

Seeing as calling out doesn't work and I don't want to risk the enemy hearing me if I am to try louder, I grimace at the only possibility willing to reveal itself to me. I press one of my sleeves against the bottom half of my face to filter off the smoke and that horrid stench that smells even stronger before entering the house. I stumble deeper inside as the heat makes it difficult to breath. I fall into temptation and remove my sleeve from my face, thinking that I would be able breath better but I am wrong. I end up in a coughing fit so I quickly return my sleeve onto my mouth and nose.

I have reach within arm's distance to the stranger. I can identify him as a boy from getting a closer look of his features from the back half of his body. The front half is still being blocked by that dumb wall.

"Come on! The house is burning! We need to go!" I growl irritably as sweat starts to pour out of my skin. I prefer the cold so heat is something I do not like to be near with.

Yet, the boy still remains in place. He's sweating so much that it's making is skin shimmer, making his breathing motion obvious. It frustrates me greatly that he is just sitting there despite being alive! For goodness sake, we're in a burning house!

Finally losing my patience, I stomp closer and lean forward to grab the back of his clothes to drag him out by force but I end up seeing something I wish I hadn't. The arm that I have reached out to grab him have fallen limp from my shock. So did the arm holding my sleeve to my face, allowing the stench to hit me with its full strength but I barely pay any attention to it. He and I just remain frozen as we stare at the process of a burning man.

The debris from the fallen part of the house have fallen onto the dead man. Burying his body and burning his clothes and flesh. The only part that is not buried in wood is the head and the right arm but the head is impaled by a broken beam. I can see part of the wooden beam through his mouth that is frozen in mid-scream. The spiked beam must have broken first, most likely when the debris fell, to create a sharp edge but only fell down later by being burned off the ceiling.

I think this is what happened because the fingernails of his right hand have been ripped off. I can count all five of them embedded into the wooden floor with the accompaniment of scratches and lines of blood. He had been trying to claw his way out so desperately that his fingernails tore off but still continued to claw his way out in futile with bloody fingers. The flesh of his arm is melting off as it burns, making me feel like I have seen this before.

Blood is still flowing out of his head. It's been pooling and soaking into the clothes of the petrified boy. The bottom of his clothes are so bloody that he must have been frozen here in shock for a long time because the blood is starting to pool at my shoes. His clothes that are touching the floor have absorbed to it's fullest capacity so the blood is flowing past him. Towards me.

The smell of burning flesh and hair continues tug at my sanity as I can feel my own innocence spiralling into an abyss at such a disorienting pace.

His eyes are still open, fresh, and green. The lively fire around us, actively burning with so much spirit, makes his eyes look alive. If I focus purely on his eyes, I wouldn't be able to tell that he is dead.

So I stand there waiting in a trance.

Waiting for him to just move.

Move his red and black arm to continue to claw for freedom.

Wriggle his body out of the burning debris.

Stand up.

And walk towards us to create some sort of interaction.

I'm waiting.

The only thing in my mind is this scene right here. The man, the boy, and I. I have forgotten about the world outside the house's entrance that I had stepped through just a while ago.

The building continues to crumble and creaks out a warning of its weakening state. But neither the boy nor I give a reaction of acknowledgement.

"Hey!"

...

"Get out of there!"

Ah...

"You're going to die!"

"Ah!" I snap my eyes to the house's entrance to find a Kyoshi warrior outside the entrance.

The entrance look smaller than usual and it's because the entrance is crooked, threatening to collapse in a few seconds as it is slowly being engulfed with fire.

I snap my attention to the boy but he is still frozen. Instead of trying to get his attention, I grab his sleeves to start dragging him out but the moment I put some force onto my feet, I slip and fall with a loud thud.

The force of my fall resonates throughout the entire house, the ceiling creaks as it sinks.

"Eh?" The boy suddenly makes a surprised noise when he feels himself falling backwards, hitting the ground with a splash and soaking him further with blood.

He only needs a second for his brain to catch up onto the current time, to take in the burning ceiling that is ready to take another life.

"Oh, fuck me..."He quickly stand while trying to maintain balance on the slippery floor.

The Kyoshi warrior watches from the entrance, pulling her hair with great distress as she watch us waddle to the entrance at a painstakingly slow pace. She reaches her hands past the entrance but refuses to set foot inside the house. The boy, who is actually older and taller than me, is having more trouble than me because he's the reason he could accidentally slip himself with all the blood dripping off of him.

I'm just sliding my feet to the entrance and am holding the boy's hand to give him support.

On one hand I hold the boy's hand and the other I reach out to the Kyoshi warrior. Burning pieces of wood rains down as the house can no longer support itself. The moment I hear the beams snap, I shut my eyes and say my quick goodbyes.

But the Kyoshi warrior is not letting anyone die when they are right in front of her with their fingers barely brushing against each other.

At the last second, she takes a big, brave step forward into the house and grabs my waist with one arm and stretches out her other hand to grab the boy's sleeve.

And pulls with the cumulative strength from all her years of dedicated training.

We fall onto the ground just as the house fully collapse on itself. None of us even so much as twitch, hardly believing that we have just barely survived a horrible death of being burned alive just by the skin of our teeth.

"Are you okay?" The Kyoshi Warrior asks once she finally gathers herself. She stands straight and outstretch her hands for us.

"Yeah..." I answer and grab her hands, allowing her to pull me up.

Silence follow after my answer, making me turn curiously to whom I have been expecting to answer from. Unfortunately, his eyes remain glued to the remains of his home and the final resting place of his father. The Kyoshi warrior gives a gentle tap on his shoulders to draw his attention, hoping to distract him. He turns with glistening eyes, his face seems to be frozen in shock at the death of his father as he continues to look up at the warrior in silence. Her strong stance that looms a protective shadow over the boy give a comfort that he needs. I watch at how amazing it is that just by standing tall can it give a sense of being protected to those under than blanket of the comforting shadow.

Slowly, the boy's shoulder looses its tension and his face relaxes.

"Thank you very much, Uma." The boy answers as he gets up on his own. I am confused by his refusal of Uma's assistance but it becomes obvious why when he shows his hands to us. They're completely soaked red.

"Right, you," Uma looks to me. "Should head back. You're friends have been looking for you. You," She looks to the boy. "Need to go to the chief's house. Don't go into the refuge house because you are definitely gonna scare the children. Do it quick, Ayasa."

"Right." Ayasa complies before turning around to run off.

"Let's go." Uma signals and all of us begin our running pace.

"Hold it!" A stray voice roars aggressively.

Uma turns around with lightning reflexes and opens her fan. She swipes it to slap a fireball aimed at her back away to the side. I stare in awe as she shifts into battle position.

"Ayasa!" Uma gives out a silent order just by calling out Ayasa's name.

"Right." Ayasa grabs my arm and makes a run for it.

"Hey, what about her!?" I exclaim as I stubbornly root myself to the earth, my hand trying to push off Ayasa's grip by using the blood to slip him off.

Ayasa scowls at the fact that he is indeed having trouble in moving a girl smaller and younger than him. Uma dashes off to the lone Fire Nation Soldier, closing the distance between them while defending herself from the fire attacks with confidence in every move she makes.

"Don't be stubborn! She's a Kyoshi Warrior! She can handle herself just fine so don't get in her way!" Ayasa scolds as he starts to use both his hands, smudging blood all over the top of part of my sleeve.

I turn around to watch the two experience fighter play a game of dodge and misses. A dance with the purpose to end the life of the other partner with only one to take the victorious bow. I continue to stare at the two of them, wondering why do they look so young and yet fight like they have lived a long life to fight like it's second nature.

Ayasa tugs my arm and I allow him to pull me away.

I turn away and run, putting all of my faith that Uma will survive.

But my prayers did not sit well with me because that means the Fire Nation Soldier would probably have to die.

Is it okay to pray like this?

"I'm going that way." I notify as I point to the direction of the hut the last time I saw Katara.

"Okay. Thanks...for helping me." Ayasa mumbles as his eyes subconsciously twitch to the direction of where his house would be.

I didn't know what to say. I have no words for comfort.

We give each other nods of goodbye and run in different direction.

But I freeze after I take a first step of my run.

Because I see something at the corner of my eye.

So I turn my eyes to the back of Ayasa.

And I see the same body of the burnt man latching himself onto Ayasa's back. Burnt fingers digging itself into the bloody fabric and yet there's no evidence of wrinkles that follows the grip.

I blink my eyes in fearful disbelief.

The burnt man has disappeared.

And Ayasa disappears from my line of sight.

My knees are shaking from the possibility that the burnt man had moved and was following us the whole time. I shake my head furiously, whipping the idea out of my head for it is too ridiculous to be true. He's dead. And I'm just seeing things.

I take in deep, calming breaths before I move to make a run.

Until I hear a wail of pain following the horrifyingly familiar sound of a building's failure to stay standing.

"Uma?" I wonder out loud as I turn my body to the direction of the noise. I remain silent, indecisive in what I should do next? Putting blind faith in Uma and run away, praying that she would be fine or do I risk my life by checking?

I turn away and run.

"I'm just a little girl. I can't even save a person from a burning house. Can't fight at all. It's not like I can do anything!" I seethe the words to myself, disappointed at my uselessness. "Maybe this whole journey thing is a mistake."

Each step I take that grows the distance, grows the guilt inside of me to be stronger and heavier. Eventually, it grows too heavy for me to run away anymore. I slow my pace into a halt. I clench my fist and grit my teeth to prevent fear from breaking me down. I still have my morals. And I refuse to let another one die in a fire.

I turn and run back, in the fastest speed that I can muster to cover the distance I have mistakenly made.

And there he is, the Fire nation soldier with his spear raised in the air, glowing menacingly with the help of cruel luminous fire. Uma lies on the floor, face down accepting defeat.

"Raagh!" I belt out as I run my shoulder deep into the side of the soldier, fully using the use of my running momentum to knock him off his feet. To push him further, I shoot my arms out and unexpectedly push him flying into the dirt a few feet away.

I didn't have the luxury to be shock, since I need to check on Uma.

I turn and what I see makes me vomit in my mouth.

Uma is buried under the debris of wood. The only body part that isn't buried are her head and right arm. She isn't seriously injured though. Just buried. Uma looks up at me, watching my body tremble as my throat gulps my vomit back down to where it belongs. I look into her green eyes and it sends me back into the past of a few minutes ago.

The shock, the burning, the shell-shocking numbness comes flashing back to me along with the scarring image of the burning man starring back at me with the same, lively green eyes.

But the trance is broken when Uma's eyes snap to the side fiercely.

"Watch out!" Uma screams but I am to slow to react as I'm still recovering from the flashback.

By the time I begin to turn my head, I start to feel the burning sensation on my back. I cry in agony at the first burn of my life shocking pain all over my body.

I desperately pat my back but it stings every time at every pat, pushing my burning shirt deeper to me scalding skin. As patting isn't working, I start to swipe at the fire, trying to wipe the fires off my back and in one swift motion from both of my hands, the fire flies off my back and disappears on the ground.

I pant shallow breaths but I could not recover before I'm forced to be vigilant.

"Run! You can't fight!" Uma's voice reminds me that I'm in a middle of a fight now. She struggles to remove the burning debris off of her but isn't strong enough. She's stuck and she's going to be burned to death in time if she can't get out.

I can't bring myself to speak. To tell her that if I run, she dies. That I don't want to just let somebody die without trying. My body feels numb as my mind is overdosed with rushing adrenaline. My eyes focus purely on the Fire Nation soldier charging at me with his spear.

It's strange how my mind is so numb that I can't panic.

The enemy thrusts his spear and I dodge, letting the spear pierce the air under my left arm. I then grab hold the spear with both of my hands and refuse to budge. He tries to pull back his weapon but finds himself struggling. It takes him a while to accept the fact that the reason he can't move his spear is not because he isn't strong enough but because the little girl in front of him wont let him.

No matter how much he pulls, push or try to swing, I rebel in allowing him to do what he wants. He grows tired of this and shoots fire at me from a kick.

I dodge by moving the spear above me to I can go under and dodge the fire while keeping my grip. The enemy takes this chance to try and pull him weapon back I keep my hold, starting this mini tug-o-war game. The enemy shoots fire once again from his feet. I try to dodge but my ungraceful dodging causes me to let go of the spear to dodge the final fire.

He successfully reclaims him weapon and takes a few steps back, forming a new battle plan in his head. All I can do is just stand here and be ready for anything.

Then he makes his move.

He does a spin to build momentum, swinging his spear with all his might. I dodge by ducking but he sends a stream of fire from his hand that have release its hold of the spear while the other hand keeps the spear spinning.

I jump back to narrowly dodge the fire and quickly land on all fours to dodge the swinging spear.

He continues this attack of switching between fire and spear while spinning quicker and quicker as the momentum builds, making each attack more and more fierce and aggressive. He efficiently switches hand back on forth to keep the spear spinning while sending fires and eventually I run out of time to react as the intervals in-between the attacks grow ever shorter.

My eyes follows the spear's clean blade as it goes for my neck.

In a desperate attempt to survive, I take a step forward and raise my arms in between the spear's neck and my head.

I brace myself.

And let it hit me hard.

**CRACK!**

The impact manages to whack my senses out me, I stumble sideways blindly as my eyes blink furiously. My arms sting and falls limp to my side. That hit must have knocked out all the energy out of me. I feel tired. I just want to lie down and sleep.

But my heart is still pumping as the adrenaline has managed to hold on. It reminds me that I'm still in danger.

I force my tired eyes to scan the situation.

The enemy is staring at his weapon. A portion of it has been broken off and it nowhere to be found. Uma has her eyes shut and is only beginning to open them. She too has braced herself for me and is surprised to see me still standing although in somewhat of a daze.

The enemy has to process that his weapon is broken but his enemy still stands. Angry and frustrated, he throws the broken weapon blindly aside and face me with his fists raised.

Strangely, only now do I feel the impending sense of doom as I finally accept that I'm just a normal girl fighting an experienced Fire bending soldier.

What on earth am I doing?

At first I wanted to panic but I'm currently to tired to do even that. I could run but I'm also too tired for that. And eventually, I'm grow tired of feeling doomed.

Now? I'm just going to fight. Because I really don't have any other choice.

I raise my fists as well and pray that another rock incident would happen. If I'm really am earth bender, this would be a great time to discover it.

I stomp onto the ground and punch the air, expected the earth to follow me lead.

But nothing happens.

The earth remains frighteningly still.

The Fire Nation soldier laughs at my foolishness before successfully sending just one fire in my way.

I raise my hands weakly to defend myself and I close my eyes, expecting another painful burn.

I'm really too tired to move my legs so all I can do is just pray that it wouldn't hurt too much.

Or better yet, stop completely.

I hear chocked gasps before silence follows. This time, I don't hesitate to open my eyes because I feel like this is happening too many times for me to not get used to it.

And once again, another feeling of de ja vu.

The fire that was sent my way is now floating right in front of my arms, flickering harmlessly. I stare at it curiously before I start to get concious of a small tingling sensation in my arms but when I try to turn my attention to it, it vanishes along with the flame in front of me.

There's no point in being confused. I'm experienced enough to know what just happened. I stopped the fire from hitting me.

The enemy didn't believe either so he sends another fire to test it out. One that is stronger and faster.

I stand my ground and hold out my arms. This time, I'm going to figure out what I am. I'm tired of being confused all the time!

I focus purely on the fire, reaching out my hands like I'm calling for it. Expecting the fire to just stop in mid-air, I accidentally let out a noise of fear when the fire suddenly starts flying to my hands at a faster speed. I instinctively retract my hands to me side and the fire changes its course to follow to motion, sending it flying to the side and hitting a burning house.

I stare at the direction where the fire had flew in momentary shock before quickly shifting my attention back to the enemy. He is enraged and sends a fury of wild punches, finally sick of having a child getting the best of him.

I take a battle stance and face the fire. I nervously force strained confidence into my moves as I move my arms, swatting the fire away to the side while taking a step back after each fire. The soldier keeps taking a step forward after sending each blasts and since he is bigger, he can close more distance than I can make.

I realize that If don't do anything now and let this continue on, I will be cornered.

After swatting a fire to the side, I send out a punch in the air, expecting to send fire of my own.

But nothing happens.

I scowl in frustration. The more I learn about myself the more confuse I am getting! I continue to try and bend an element to the enemy while swatting his fires away but I continue to fail.

It's like I can't bend my own elements! It's always when someone else bends at _me_!

I wave a fire out of my way but that has also fail to work. The fire strikes me in the chest and sends me falling backwards to the ground.

I slowly force myself to roll on the ground to face it so I can begin to get up. I struggle to push myself up but only now do I realize how drained I am. My eyes widen as I watch my arms tremble violently as they struggle to keep even just my torso up. My legs feel like jelly and trying to move them actually hurts. My back stings, reminding me of my first injury.

The adrenaline must be wearing off because I have forgotten it before. Only now am I feeling the full force of my injuries and my exhaustion.

I can't move anymore.

"No..."I breath as I struggle crawl away from the footsteps taking its time to come closer to me. "Get away from me."

He ignores my pathetic plea. He kicks me in my side, forcing me to cry as I roll onto my back. I flail to roll myself to face the ground so I can try to push myself off the ground again but I'm too weak. I'm stuck lying on my back like a turtleduck.

All I can do now is watch the proud Fire Nation soldier raise his fist into the air, brightly lit with red flames and it's all for me. There's even no point in closing my eyes to brace myself. I can feel my conciousness slipping away. My sight starts to grow dark as tiny little stars cloud my vision.

I can barely concentrate let alone give a surprise reaction with the Fire Nation soldier is suddenly knocked off his feet.

I lull my head to it's side, trying to get some idea of what's going on before I can sleep in peace.

I can see a blur of white. A real big one.

"Wan!" I hear a muddled voice call out to me. I didn't even try to give a response.

I see a blur of the sunrise, a blue and white, and a green.

Despite my lack of energy, I still manage to smile at them. Aang, Katara and Sokka has come to my rescue.

But they are stopped by another green figure. I didn't know who it is until she spoke, "Don't go near her! She's Fire Nation!"

It's Uma. How did she get out?

I force my eyes to search for the pile of debris and see what I think is the broken part of the spear lodged inside the pile. Did she use that to move the debris and get out?

"What!? No! Of course not!" Sokka, of all people, comes to my defence.

"I saw her! She bent fire!" Uma accuses as she points to me, watching them with half-closed, slightly unfocused, eyes.

"Even if she did, it's not like we can just leave her here." Katara says after a moment of stunned silence.

"Why not? We can deal with her." Uma limps towards my body.

I start to grow fearful until I see Aang reaches out an arm to stop her.

"No. We will. We brought her here so we should be the one to take care of her." The words sound oddly cold. I don't know if it's because I can't see his face to fully read his expression or not. "And even if she bends fire, she's our friend. I trust her."

Gratefully, those are the last words I hear before finally losing my conciousness.

I'll straighten them out once I rest. I know for sure I'm not a Firebender. Nor am I an Earthbender. After all, what kind of bender can't bend their own elements but other's instead?


	13. Benderer?

Author's note: Sorry that this one is short. I had to push this out but I didn't want to jump into the Omashu arc so suddenly half-way into this chapter because I feel it doesn't connect well. I'm also slightly struggling on what I can do with the Omashu episode. There's only one change I can think of but other than that, everything else would be normal like in the episode. I'm a little worried about that.

But my stories have the tendency to change itself as I go so everything should me fine.

bucketbot: Yup, for now she's a blank slate for now but I already have a direction on how she would grow in strength and power. I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying this! I'm really grateful.

True Thinker: Hehe, That's not really what she is but you'll see a hint in this chapter.

* * *

"So...What does this mean?" Sokka questions with a finger rubbing his chin.

**Splash!**

"Arg, bloody son of a..." I growl irritably as the water I was trying to hold up have fallen to the ground.

"Try and bend it up now?" Aang suggests, seating in front of me.

"Remember to move your hands down and then pull them up like I showed you." Katara advice as she once again shows me the hand motion.

"I know!" I snap but then I instinctively shake my head at my rudeness. "Sorry. It's just that it's already 8 times! Face it, I'm not a second Avatar or whatever!"

"It's okay, Wan. Just keep trying. We'll figure this out." Katara says as she lays an encouraging hand gently on my left shoulder.

Nodding my head, I take a breath before I hover my hands above the water and lower them down slowly, pretending to push my energy into the water to get a hold of it. Then I raise them with straining focus.

Nothing happens.

I huff irritable before dropping my hands to my side and lean back. I look up at the sky to calm myself before I rage and punch the damn water. But I don't want to accidentally distract him or something when I hit the saddle. He's currently flying in a straight direction so Aang can sit with us to figure out what's going on with me.

"Can I try?" Aang asks as he hovers his hand above the water. The water is from Katara's water skin so there isn't anything weird to ask for permission.

I look back down to see if Aang can do it and whether if I can see any difference between his movements and mine. Katara nods and Aang lowers his hands, just like I did.

And he bends the water off the saddle with irritating ease. I glare at him enviously when suddenly an idea pops into my head.

"Aang, hold the water." I request and hover my hands above water floating in between his hands.

Everyone watches me inquisitively as I focus on the water.

And pull it out of his grip.

"Ah!" The success of my experiment shocks me that I accidentally drop the water again, resulting a splash.

"Do it again! Try again!" Sokka urges as he leans forward with interest. Katara and Aang leans forward as well in anticipation.

I try to bend the water off the saddle but the water did not even ripple.

"Okay." Sokka says confidently and turns to Aang, "Bend the water again, Aang. Just like before."

Aang did as he is told, getting an idea on what Sokka is trying to do.

"Wan, try and bend it from him again."

I listen to Sokka and did as I am told.

And I slowly take it from Aang's hands and into mine.

"Yes!" Katara cheers for me as I focus all of my nervous attention to not drop the water.

The ball of water...can't even be called a ball. It's looks more like a blob monster that grows more and more of out shape. I try to hold it together but water eventually starts to leak as I feel the energy in the water slipping away.

"Hold, hold!" Aang encourages when the water starts to drip onto the saddle.

"I can't! It's slipping!" I answer in a panic, water leaking as a stream from the ball, before the energy slips out of my grip completely and falls back onto the saddle.

The moment the water drops onto the saddle, so did everyone's enthusiasm. But instead of staying down in the dumps, they proceed to try and understand what happened.

I'm not even going to try because I know I'll get nothing.

"I think I have an idea what's going on." Sokka says as he stares at his own reflection in the water.

"Well? Share it, Sokka!" Katara urges her brother seated across from her excitingly and we all wait for Sokka's answer.

"Well. Wan can bend earth, fire, air, and water. Although it's more to redirecting with air." I interrupt Sokka.

"Hey, it's hard okay! Wind is all..."I wiggle my fingers in front of me to demonstrate what I felt when I tried to bend air. "...flowy-flowy. It moves around too fast for me to catch it."

Katara can't help but giggle at a sudden memory back at the Southern Water Tribe. "That sounds like Aang. Always moving around with too much energy."

Aang blushes and scratches the back of his head sheepishly.

"Yeah, yeah but back to me!" Sokka calls for all of our attention once again before continuing his explanation. "She can bend four elements but it seems that she can't bend out her own elements, right Wan?"

"Right. I can't bend earth when the Fire Nation soldier attacked me. I can bend _his_ fire away from me but I can't bend any at him. As in, from myself. My own fire. I can't do that. And now..."I gesture to the water in front of us in the middle of our circle. There's no need to explain that.

"At first I thought we have a second Avatar or something but after this little experiment, I don't think that's it."

I thank the Gods that we have reach this conclusion.

"Then what is she?" Aang asks the question of my life.

"I think she bends other people's bending."Sokka lays out his thoughts and all of us react in disbelief.

"What!?" We all screech in unison. Even Momo joins in the screeching but I doubt it's for the same reason as us...I think.

"Think about! There's no other way to explain it. It's literally the only thing that makes sense. She can never bend out an element on her own but she can bend somebody else's element. Name once that Wan has bent out her own element." Sokka further solidifies his theory and none of us can deny it.

"But isn't it too early to say? It's only been one day since she joined." Katara puts out the fact.

"...That may be so but..." I start to signal the beginning of my opinion as I think about it. Everyone turns to me curiously and wait for me to speak out my thoughts. "When I hold other people's elements. I can feel it in my grip. I can feel the energy in the element. I can feel the rocks' solid energy in my grip when I bend Ming's rocks. I felt the fire with the energy growing and nearly burning me when I tried to bend the fire back at the Fire Nation soldier. That's why I just swat the fires away instead of trying to throw it back at him. The fire suddenly flies my away faster like it was burning the energy coming from my hands."

I rub my hands, remember the hotness from having the fire coming so close to them so many times.

"And Katara's water was just...watery! It's a lot harder to control because it feels like it's slushing around non-stop. Aang's the same. Way too fast." I chide at their element's characteristic despite it not being their fault for being born into the elements they bend.

"So...She's a...bender...bender?" Katara tries to conclude this discussion with an identification for me but it sounds kind of weird.

"Bender bender?" Aang tries the word out and it indeed feels weird.

"Bendy Bender? Ah Hell no." I quickly curse that title away. Hell no am I naming myself that.

"Wan! Language!" Katara scolds me and I pout as I slouch into my shoulders. She's like my mother.

Except I wont listen to her because she ain't my mother.

"Benderbending? Benderbender...Bendering? Bender? The Benderer...Can't we just call you the second Avatar?" Sokka suggests.

"No!" And I furiously refuse his offer in less than a second."You can't just call the me the second Avatar like that because first of all, I can't _bend _bend! Just redirected it at the_ very _most! I can't even hold onto any of the elements for more than 5 seconds! I. Can't. Bend. Them. I'm not an Avatar."

Sokka raises his hands in surrender.

"Um..."Aang tries to change the mood by starting a new topic. "Since we're on the topic of bending, I'd like to bring up something about my bending. It could also concern Wan in what I'm about to say." I turn to Aang curiously, lowering the fist that I was using to threaten Sokka.

"Wow, really? Another Issue?" Sokka asks with mocking disbelief and I raise my fist closer to his face.

But nobody believes that I will punch Sokka so Aang nonchalantly continues.

"I guess you can call it an issue because back in Kyoshi island, I had trouble controlling my bending."

"What do you mean, Aang? I didn't notice anything. Sokka?" Katara turns to the one whose talent is to spout ideas.

"I didn't see anything weird when Aang was fighting the Zuko." Sokka pushes my fist away from his face so he doesn't have to lean back so much and turns to Aang. "You look like you had everything under control...Bending wise."

"Wan?" Katara asked me as I seat properly, no longer at Sokka's face.

"I don't know Aang's normal air bending capabilities so I'm not sure but I guess it has been sort of inconsistent. He was also mention something like an energy...?" I signal Aang to continue as I trail off.

"Yeah! It only happens when I'm in danger."

Katara tilts her head in confusion as she raises an eye brow, " You sure you didn't go into the Avatar state?"

"What's an Avatar state?" I ask as I envy her eyebrow raising ability.

"It's when Aang taps into the power and knowledge of all his previous lives. He can then bend all four elements with great prowess. We call it a state because it seems he doesn't have full control over it."

Gob smacked by what I am hearing, all I can say is, "They didn't teach us that in school!"

"That's probably because the previous Avatars were recorded down in history after they've master all 4 elements and probably the Avatar state." Katara reasons rationally.

"Hey Wan, bet they didn't teach you that the Avatar glows when they enter the Avatar state." Sokka mischievously throws out the info and awaits my reaction.

"WHAT!?" Horror streak across my features as my mind pulls out dreadful memories.

Sokka seems to have not notice my slightly irregular reaction as he has his eyes closed to fully appreciate my loud outburst.

Just by his reaction, I get the feeling that he likes pranks. And that it seems my mother has not told him about my...previous glowing problems. And if he doesn't know, that means the other doesn't know about it either.

"Don't worry, Wan. It's not dangerous or anything. It' just a weird feature." Aang tries to comfort me when he sees how extremely distressed I am.

"Oh, no! It's not that I'm worried or anything! I mean, I am but I'm just more shock than worried. I mean, It's not often you see a person glow, right? Ahaha."

No one else notice anything weird from my reaction since hearing someone glow is definitely shocking.

Except for Katara as she notices my nervous habit and knows I'm hiding something.

"But I wasn't in the Avatar state. I felt an energy flowing into me. Because of that extra energy, I kept bending with more power than I intent to."

"Okay, so you get bending hyperness. What does that have to do with Wan?"Sokka pushes Aang to get to the point.

Aang fidgets uncomfortably and twiddle his fingers for a moment before nervously answering, "I think my bending hyperness is coming from Wan."

Just I was about to object this ridiculous idea, Aang cuts me off to reason with me, "My hyper bending only happens when you're around. I never had a problem with it until Kyoshi Island. And even then, I couldn't bend with as much power compared to when you're around. Remember when we had to glide from the shore to Kyoshi Village? We kept going up and down because I had trouble keeping us up. And every time I airbend us upwards, I try to focus where that energy is coming from and...I'm pretty sure it's coming from you."

"I..."Don't have an answer to that. It sounds so impossible but...If it's coming from Aang, from the Avatar, then...maybe it could be possible? "...don't know."

Ugh...

I rub my temples as the inside of my skull starts to pound. I was unconscious not long ago. The moment I woke up I was interrogated. I told them what happened at the fight. I was worried how they would react when I told them I bent fire away to defend myself but...they barely reacted. Then I remember Ume actually told them while I was losing conciousness.

I even tried to tell them about the old man but...my mouth refused to move. The smell of burning flesh and hair seemed to have came from nowhere and nauseated me.

So I just said Ayasa was shell-shocked by the old man's death. I also didn't mention that I though I saw the old man's ghost clinging onto Ayasa's back. It was probably nothing, I hope.

Then we started the experiment on whether I can bend more elements.

And here we are.

This is too much for me after just waking up from losing a battle.

"Wan, what's wrong?" Katara interrupts my thinking.

"Huh?...Oh, I'm...fine. My head hurts, that's all." I answer plainly before going back to my thoughts.

I didn't even land a hit on that guy, did I? Well, except for that one surprise attack. But one-on-one? I would have...

I suddenly shudder, worrying everyone else.

"Maybe you should rest. How is your back feeling?" Aang asks as he leans to the side, trying to get a look of my back without moving.

"Itchy." I answer as I raise my back to touch my back.

I'm still wearing the same shirt I wore when the Fire Nation soldier attacked me from behind. I'll change at our next stop.

"Don't scratch it or you'll scratch off the ointment. You're lucky your mom packed that in. If it wasn't for that book your mom gave you, I wouldn't be able to tell which ointment to use."Katara removes my hand from my back as she hands me a bundle of cloth to use as a pillow.

I absent-mindedly nod at everything she says before crawling to the back of the saddle and lay down. I drop my head onto the soft bundle with a soft, satisfying thud and close my eyes.

But I didn't fall asleep immediately.

"It's kind of amazing that her back isn't burnt at all. Just a little pink."

"So with the ointment she'll be alright, right, Katara?"

"That's right, Aang."

"We might have to tell her to get rid of that shirt. The hole is too big to just sew it close without buying new materials. And we have a long way to go and we can't just use money when we can't to anymore."

"I think we should let Wan decide that, Sokka. She has her own money. She went shopping with me but didn't buy anything."

"Oh, really? Well, fine then. We already passed a village. And we've been flying the whole night since Appa had a nap at Kyoshi Island. So where's our next stop, Aang? You suggested going into this direction."

"We're heading to Omashu! You're going to love it."

"Lower down you voice, Aang. You'll wake up Wan."

"Oh right. Sorry."

...

I wait for anything to be said after Katara scolded Aang but it seems the conversation has ended.

I...didn't know what I was expecting.

Actually, yes I do.

I expected some conspiracy about me.

Something like whispering something is wrong with me. Or that they're planning to send me back home. That I'm too much trouble. Or anything that's just...what would be the normal things my parents have said when they thought I couldn't hear them. Yeah, I eavesdrop on them a lot. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidental.

Sometimes they'll speak out their complaints straight to my face.

I can't stop that single tear that rolls down to the cloth below my aching head.

I have long stopped expecting anyone to be at my side at anything.

And yet, here are the people that I never thought that could ever exist.

They didn't suspect me.

Of anything.

Why didn't they suspect me?

Why aren't they mad at me?

I don't understand.

_", she's our friend. I trust her."_

My memory suddenly brings out the last words I heard before I lost consciousness before.

I still don't fully understand.

...But I don't think I have to.

All I need to know is that I am trusted.

So I owe them my trust.

And so much more.

_"...Are we...still friends?"_

_"Of course! Why would we suddenly stop being friends?"_

_"Well, yeah. I guess so. We're all friends, aren't we?"_

_"...Yeah...Yeah! We are!"_

_"And even if she bends fire, she's our friend. I trust her."_

I am lulled to a peaceful slumber by the comforting words that are said in the voices of my friends, dreaming about us spending a normal day together and just having a good time while we laugh at silly jokes.

* * *

Author's note: And there we go! A hint at Wan's abilities! I wonder if anyone can figure what it is because I won't be revealing it for a long time.


End file.
